The Aerospace Corporation has developed a testbed for studying pointing, acquisition, and tracking systems for
lasercom terminals. The testbed consists of two configurable terminals that are currently set up to represent a GEO-to-
GEO link. Each terminal has the ability to point open-loop, execute scan patterns, and track a received beam. The system
operates in small-beam space and consists of a far-field space simulator and two lasercom terminals operating at 473 nm
and 633 nm with representative hardware (fast steering mirrors, optical detectors, etc.). This paper discusses the software
developed for the testbed and the characterization of its performance, which includes open-loop pointing accuracy and
residual tracking error in the presence of applied disturbances. Analytical predictions are compared to experimental
results. Each terminal has the ability to progress from acquisition to tracking mode and the two terminals together
demonstrate the cooperative acquisition process.
A lasercom pointing, acquisition, and tracking (PAT) testbed has been developed at The Aerospace Corporation. The current setup represents a GEO-to-GEO link, but depending on the target PAT subsystem, this testbed can be reconfigured. No communication aspects are currently implemented. The system operates in small beam space and consists of a far field space simulator, and two identical lasercom terminals implemented with representative hardware (fast steering mirrors, optical detectors, etc.) and differentiated only by two laser sources operating at visible wavelengths of 473 nm and 633 nm. In this paper, the design process will be examined, and aspects of the pointing accuracy will be discussed.
Infrared (IR) Earth thermal image tracking has potential to enable optical communications throughout the solar system
and is a promising alternative to traditionally proposed laser beacon tracking. Image blurring due to finite receiver
aperture size introduces distortions to IR Earth image in the presence of Earth's non-uniform emissivity and reduces the
centroiding accuracy in identifying the center of the Earth. The impact is largest in the 0.5 to 2 AU range. We
demonstrate that a deconvolution algorithm can mitigate the effect of blurring associated with IR Earth non-uniformity
and improve centroiding edge detection accuracy.
A star tracker based beaconless (a.k.a. non-cooperative beacon) acquisition, tracking and pointing concept for precisely
pointing an optical communication beam is presented as an innovative approach to extend the range of high bandwidth
(> 100 Mbps) deep space optical communication links throughout the solar system and to remove the need for a ground
based high power laser as a beacon source. The basic approach for executing the ATP functions involves the use of stars
as the reference sources from which the attitude knowledge is obtained and combined with high bandwidth gyroscopes
for propagating the pointing knowledge to the beam pointing mechanism. Details of the conceptual design are presented
including selection of an orthogonal telescope configuration and the introduction of an optical metering scheme to
reduce misalignment error. Also, estimates are presented that demonstrate that aiming of the communications beam to
the Earth based receive terminal can be achieved with a total system pointing accuracy of better than 850 nanoradians (3
sigma) from anywhere in the solar system.
KEYWORDS: Mars, Telescopes, Sensors, Space telescopes, Staring arrays, Signal detection, Signal processing, Line of sight stabilization, Optical filters, Space operations
NASA’s upcoming Mars Laser Communication Demonstration (MLCD) scheduled for the 2010-2011 time-frame is planning to use the Hale telescope at Palomar Mountain, California to receive the downlink. The optical links will be demonstrated in the presence of daytime sky backgrounds with the characteristic faint laser signal associated with transmission from deep space. A system level description for acquiring and tracking the laser downlink signal in order to achieve the desired communications performance is presented.
The pointing knowledge for the deep space optical communications should be accurate and the estimate update rate needs to be sufficiently higher to compensate the spacecraft vibration. Our objective is to meet these two requirements, high accuracy and update rate, using the combinations of star trackers and inertial sensors. Star trackers are very accurate and provide absolute pointing knowledge with low update rate depending on the star magnitude. On the other hand, inertial sensors provide relative pointing knowledge with high update rates. In this paper, we describe how the star tracker and inertial sensor measurements are combined to reduce the pointing knowledge jitter. This method is based on the 'iterative averaging' of the star tracker and gyro measurements. Angle sensor measurements are to fill in between the two gyro measurements for higher update rate and the total RMS error (or jitter) increases in RSS (Root-Sum-Squared) sense. The estimated pointing jitter is on the order of 150 nrad which is well below the typical requirements of the deep space optical communications. This 150 nrad jitter can be achieved with 8 cm diameter of telescope aperture. Additional expectations include 1/25 pixel accuracy per star, SIRTF class gyros (ARW = 0.0001 deg/root-hr), 5 Hz star trackers with ~5.0 degree FOV, detector of 1000 by 1000 pixels, and stars of roughly 9 to 9.5 magnitudes.
For high rate communications such as optical communications, tracking loss can result in substantial reduction of average data rate and the total data volume of the transmitted data. For optical communications, which transmits laser beam through atmosphere, atmospheric induced fades of the beacon signal can vary significantly as observed in ground-to-ground optical experiments. In this paper, we propose a new scheme of compensating the atmospheric induced fading effects using inertial sensors. By measuring the platform vibrations, the beacon movements on the Focal Plane Array can be deduced even if the beacon is lost due to fading. By avoiding the new cycle of reacquisition and tracking, high rate communication can be maintained. The allowable period of beacon fade depends on the inertial sensor noise characteristics and acquisition and tracking Field-Of-View. We will present the results of our analysis for the planned Altair UAV-to-Ground optical communications demonstrations using an accelerometer.
A robust acquisition, tracking and pointing (ATP) subsystem is being developed for the 2.5 Gigabit per second (Gbps) Unmanned-Aerial-Vehicle (UAV) to ground free-space optical communications link project. The demonstration will gather HDTV images of regions of geological interest (e.g. volcanic) and then downlink those images to ground receivers at a range of 50 km while the UAV is at an altitude of 18 km. With a 200 mW downlink laser at 1550 nm for a BER of 1E-9, the pointing requirements on the flight terminal are a jitter error of 19.5 urad and a bias error of 14.5 urad with a probability of pointing induced fades of 0.1 %. In order to mitigate the effect of atmospheric fades and deal with UAV flight and vibration uncertainties (relatively new craft) the ATP subsystem requirements have been set to a stringent level in order to assure success of the communication link. The design, analysis and development of this robust ATP subsystem will be described in this paper. The key innovations that have been developed to make the ATP subsystem robust are i) the application of inertial sensors to make the acquisition and tracking functions tolerant to atmospheric fades, ii) the usage of active exposure control to provide a 16 dB dynamic range on the Focal Plane Array (FPA) tracking window, and iii) the introduction of a second ultra wide field of view camera to assure acquisition of the ground beacon.
A new method for improving centroid accuracy, thereby pointing accuracy, is proposed. Accurate centroid estimation is critical for free-space optical communications where the number of photons from the reference optical sources such as stars or an uplink beacon is limited. It is known that the centroid accuracy is proportional to the SNR. Presence of various noise sources during the exposure of CCD can lead to significant degradation of the centroid estimation. The noise sources include CCD read noise, background light, stray light, and CCD processing electronics. One of the most widely used methods to reduce the effects of the noise and background bias is the thresholding method, which subtracts a fixed threshold from the centroid window before centroid computation. The approach presented here, instead, utilizes the spot model to derive the signal boundary that is used to truncate the noise outside the signal boundary. This process effectively reduces both the bias and the noise. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through simulations.
This paper summarizes NASA/JPL progress on sub-microradian pointing system design. Sub-microradian pointing has been found to be critical for the deep space optical communications from earlier studies. The objective of current effort is to develop the needed technologies and demonstrate a sub-microradian pointing capability under simulated spacecraft vibrations. This is expected to establish the foundation for future deep space optical communication missions. The point system, once built, should be able to support optical communications anywhere within solar system for non-orbiting spacecraft. The proposed pointing system is based on high precision inertial sensors and large format focal plane arrays, which can operate under low intensity beacon sources such as stars. This design concept drastically deviates from the conventional design limited for short range, which assumes high signal level and quadrant detectors or small format focal plane arrays. We will present the architecture of the pointing system, pointing error analysis, and the progresses on the laboratory validations.
NASA/JPL has been developing technologies to accurately point a laser beam from deep space with sub-micro-radian precision for data transmission systems. A novel approach to achieve this goal is based on using high bandwidth inertial sensors to compensate for jitter caused by spacecraft vibrations. The use of high bandwidth inertial sensors promises to enable the implementation of laser communication links anywhere within the solar system and beyond. A functional demonstration of closed-loop accelerometer- assisted beacon tracking under simulated spacecraft vibration was undertaken, in order to validate innovative concepts, technologies, sub-systems and algorithms that achieve the sub-micro-radian pointing accuracy necessary for optical communication systems from deep space. The laboratory demonstration included integration of the complete acquisition, tracking, and pointing system with inertial sensors (e.g. accelerometers). Double integration, bias and initial velocity estimation algorithms were developed, verified and implemented. Accelerometer performance was characterized and integrated to the system. A laser beacon was mounted on a platform that simulates spacecraft vibrations. Vibrations were introduced into the beacon and were simultaneously sampled by the accelerometer. These signals were used to close the pointing loop. Closed loop tracking of the vibrating beacon was achieved using the accelerometer information interlaced with a slow-rate reference update (laser beacon centroids). This presentation will describe the details of the functional demonstration of accelerometer-assisted beacon tracking and pointing in a laboratory environment under simulated spacecraft vibration.
We present a preliminary design for a tracking and pointing subsystem for the optical communication link between the International Space Station and a ground receiver at Table Mountain Facility. The link is intended to demonstrate high rate downlink capability of rates up to 2.5 Gbps. The design objective of tracking and pointing subsystem is to limit the pointing loss to within 4 dB to ensure the maximum downlink capability with 3 dB link margin. We will show the underlying tracking and pointing subsystem design and present analysis that shows the allocated error budget can be met.
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