DEVELOPMENT OF THE OPTICAL GROUND STATION FOR THE OICETS SATELLITE AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

摘要

Ground-to-satellite laser communication between the optical ground station in Koganei, Tokyo, and a low earth orbit satellite, the Optical Inter-orbit Communications Engineering Test Satellite (OICETS), was jointly tested by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology in March and May, 2006. To mitigate optical scintillation due to atmospheric turbulence, four parallel laser beams were used for uplink transmission. As a result, an optical link could usually be established even when there was turbulence over the ground station. The uplink communication quality can be further improved by using fading countermeasures. This achievement of a high-data-rate direct optical link to the ground is a milestone in satellite communications.