An account is given of the concepts, techniques, and system design features that may be used to realize an optical communications link for future planetary missions. Such a spacecraft subsystem would encompass a 10-30 cm aperture optical telescope for both transmitting and receiving. Uplink from a laser, in the form of pulsed ranging signals or command information, will be extracted by a tracking detector; downlink data, as well as detected ranging pulses, will be properly formatted and used to modulate the downlink laser. The optical receiving station may be either on the ground or in earth orbit.


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    Title :

    Technological status and future challenges of deep space optical communication


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    Aerospace century XXI: Space flight technologies ; 1986 ; Boulder, CO, United States


    Publication date :

    1987-01-01


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English