Transformation of DLR's laser communication terminals for CubeSats towards new application scenarios

Kurzfassung

Modern solutions for secure, robust and high-speed satellite communication rely on free-space optical communication in addition to classical radio-frequency channels. The major challenge for laser communication is the precise pointing and the dependency on high precision attitude determination and control systems, because of the lasers narrow beam divergences. This restricts the use cases and application areas for laser communication to mainly point-to-point connections and reduces the beam steering agility. Thus, German Aerospace Center (DLR) develops pointing concepts, independent from the carriers attitude to open new fields for laser communication. DLR has already developed several systems of coarse pointing assemblies in different projects for various scenarios. The next step is to refine the existing systems to provide solutions for CubeSats. The majority of the developed laser communication terminals intends to be transferred to a commercial market. Thus, the interests and the demands of possible customers are already considered during the terminals design. Furthermore, the payloads follow a modular approach to easily adapt and extend the payloads, to react on changing market demands in a short time. This paper describes the transformation from a point-to-point optical transmitter (OSIRIS4CubeSat) to an orientation independent terminal, ready to serve applications in mega-constellations (Cube1G).