High data rate inter‐satellite‐communication system SOLACOS

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Pribil, K.^; | Krieger, J. | Meier, C. | Stolze, M. | Majewski, Th. | Müller, Th. | Pruchner, R.

Affiliations: Dornier Satellitensysteme GmbH, D‐88039 Friedrichshafen, Germany

Note: [] Corresponding author. Present address: Contraves Space, Department W‐BD, Schaffhauser Strasse 580, CH‐8052, Zurich, Switzerland. Tel.: +41 1 306 2035; Fax: +41 1 306 3823; E‐mail: [email protected].

Abstract: We describe the realization of the Lasercomm on‐ground verification system SOLACOS and the current development status. SOLACOS comprises the hardware development of 2 optical terminals and the test infrastructure to test the performance of this system in on‐ground experiments. In SOLACOS we implement a coherent 650 MBit/s transmission channel based on coherent Syncbit data transmission technology and on Nd\,{:}\,YAG solid state lasers, a diode‐laser based 10 MBit/s ASK transmission system and a fully functional PAT system for an inter‐orbit‐link application. In parallel to the hardware activities, a computer simulation model of the system is realized. The main goal of SOLACOS is to match the predictions from the simulation to the real‐world results from the hardware.

Journal: Space Communications, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 97-104, 1998