Research and development activitieson space laser communications in NICT

摘要

The R&D activities and current status in NICT on space laser communications are reported, where it is shown the goal and scenario originating from the satellite-ground laser communication demonstrations with ETS-VI since 1994 for two decades. The experiences obtained in the demonstrations have been inherited to the experiments with OICETS in 2006. The experiments using the satellite are on going in 2008. Among these demonstrations, a laser terminal with combination of key technologies was experimentally produced. For the next space laser communication system, we have started the next version development technologies, on which trial manufactures are currently in progress. They have been (and will be) implemented and tested at the ground station.