Satellite platform vibration influence on acquisition system for intersatellite optical communications

Impact of spectral noise shape and correlations of laser beam jitter on acquiring optical links in space

“…The mean search time was computed with an analytical model in [10], assuming a series of repetitive scans is required in order to increase the detection probability. This model was recently extended to include the impact of vibrations on the mean search time in [11]. The probability of "hitting" the receiving SC at a specific location with the vibrating scanning beam was arXiv:2202.01976v1 [physics.ins-det] 1 Feb 2022 studied in [12], but the more relevant probability average over the SC uncertainty distribution was not further analyzed.…”

“…Model predictions for this case generally differ from the actual physical case of finite integration times that are required in order to accumulate sufficient energy for detection which we investigate in this paper. Furthermore, our analyses are based on band-limited noise of different spectral shapes, which also leads to quite different results, in particular for slow scan speed and long integration times, compared to unlimited band-width considered in previous studies [11,12]. We first extend the previous model [13] to account for beam overlaps across multiple tracks, allowing us to analyze the effect of drifts of either scanning beam or receiving SC in the uncertainty plane, which we find to have a significant impact on the probability of detection.…”

“…We refer to this limit as the "Hard Sphere Model (HSM)", as it defines a successful detection event whenever the distance between receiving SC and beam center is smaller than a fixed radius R HS . The HSM has been used in previous studies of the acquisition process [11,12], where it can be applied if the received beam powers are high and the integration times short. This is the case for most missions dedicated to optical communication which are equipped with powerful lasers and large aperture telescopes.…”

Analysis of performance and robustness against jitter of various search methods for acquiring optical links in space

“…A more complex analytical model was developed in [17], where a discretized spiral with individual dwell points was used, like the one introduced before in [14], to compute the mean search time for either a single scan or for a series of repetitive scans over the same region. This model was extended to include the effect of micro-vibrations on the mean search time in a very recent paper [18]. The impact of receiving terminal position on the probability of acquisition failure for a given level of beam jitter was studied with a complex analytical model in [19].…”

“…Another goal of this paper is to derive an analytical model to assess the impact of beam jitter on the probability of acquisition failure in section 4, which we then use to assess the robustness of the methods presented before. Unlike the models of [18,19], we include the effect of correlations between tracks, which -as we will see in section 4 of this paper-is quite important for a narrow pitch of the spiral track. In summary, this paper aims to support the specification of high-level requirements for acquisition of a constellation of satellites by deriving analytical models to assess some of the key performance aspects and to highlight the underlying parametric dependencies.…”