Multi-Beam Steering Systems for Spacecraft Multi-Beam Laser Communication Terminals
Joshua Spaander (TU Delft - Aerospace Engineering)
J. Guo – Promotor (TU Delft - Aerospace Engineering)
E.K.A. Gill – Promotor
R. Saathof – Copromotor (TU Delft - Aerospace Engineering)
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Abstract
Laser communication is seen as the future of high-speed communication in space and a potential key technology for the future. This is due to low beam divergence, around three orders of magnitude less than that of for similarly sized microwave based radio frequency systems. This allows higher signal-to-noise ratios due to increased signal power transferred. Additionally, the reduced beam divergence implies no overlap with other optical links, eliminating cross interference. As a result, laser communication can leverage larger bandwidths. Nevertheless, low beam divergence has also meant that laser communication until now has been point-to-point, limiting scalability and reducing reliability. Multi-beam laser communication terminals (MBTs) offer point-to-multipoint laser communication, implying a scalable solution to bringing this technology into globally available networks....