Overview of the Ground-to-Orbit Lasercom Demonstration (GOLD)

Keith E. Wilson; James R. Lesh; Kenichi Araki; Yoshinori Arimoto

doi:10.1117/12.273703

24 April 1997 Overview of the Ground-to-Orbit Lasercom Demonstration (GOLD)

Keith E. Wilson, James R. Lesh, Kenichi Araki, Yoshinori Arimoto

Proceedings Volume 2990, Free-Space Laser Communication Technologies IX; (1997) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.273703
Event: Photonics West '97, 1997, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

The ground-to-orbit Lasercom Demonstration conducted between the ETS-VI spacecraft and the ground station at JPL's Table Mountain Facility, Wrightwood CA was the first ground-to- space two-way optical communications experiment. The demonstration was conducted over a period of seven months and required simultaneous and cooperative operations by team members in Tokyo and California. A key objective was to measure the atmospheric attenuation and seeing during the demonstration to validate the performance of the optical link. The telemetry downlinked from the laser communications equipment provided information on the in-orbit performance of the onboard laser transmitter. Downlinked PN data enabled measurement of bit error rates. BERs as low as 10^-4 were measured on the uplink and 10^-5 on the downlink. Measured signal powers agreed with theoretical predictions.

Citation Download Citation

Keith E. Wilson, James R. Lesh, Kenichi Araki, and Yoshinori Arimoto "Overview of the Ground-to-Orbit Lasercom Demonstration (GOLD)", Proc. SPIE 2990, Free-Space Laser Communication Technologies IX, (24 April 1997); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.273703

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