Changes

Although not yet flown, JPL has mature designs for a 1U lasercomm terminal to be flown on a future CubeSat. The terminal features a 6 cm transmit/receive aperture and has been considered for lunar or interplanetary applications.

Although not yet flown, JPL has mature designs for a 1U lasercomm terminal to be flown on a future CubeSat. The terminal, occupying 1U of a proposed 6U satellite, features a 7 cm transmit/receive aperture with a optical tracking system capable of achieving on the order of 10 urad angular accuracy.[http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Flunar-cubes.com%2Fdocs%2FHamid_Hemmati_13_04_11.pdf&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHQ4V0UMUZgkp0BMVtynl8c4GZ5vw] The proposed terminal uses a 0.5W laser of unspecified frequency, assumes a ground telescope 1m in aperture diameter (using superconducting nanowire photon detectors), and predicts a data rate between 150 and 200 Mbits/s. Such satellites have been proposed for lunar and interplanetary missions, for which their small mass and high data rates give them considerable potential. [http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/716078main_Staehle_2011_PhI_CubeSat.pdf]

 

JPL's technical documentation [http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/716078main_Staehle_2011_PhI_CubeSat.pdf] and project presentation [http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Flunar-cubes.com%2Fdocs%2FHamid_Hemmati_13_04_11.pdf&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHQ4V0UMUZgkp0BMVtynl8c4GZ5vw] are publicly available.

 

[[Category:Optical Communications]]

[[Category:Optical Communications]]