Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Characterization and Comparison of CubeSat and Drone Platform Jitter Effects on Laser Beam Pointing Stability

Version 1 : Received: 10 August 2022 / Approved: 11 August 2022 / Online: 11 August 2022 (03:38:22 CEST)

How to cite: Ishola, F.; Carrasco-Casado, A.; Cordova, R.; Masui, H.; Munemasa, Y.; Trinh, P.V.; Fuse, T.; Tsuji, H.; Cho, M.; Toyoshima, M. Characterization and Comparison of CubeSat and Drone Platform Jitter Effects on Laser Beam Pointing Stability. Preprints 2022, 2022080206. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202208.0206.v1 Ishola, F.; Carrasco-Casado, A.; Cordova, R.; Masui, H.; Munemasa, Y.; Trinh, P.V.; Fuse, T.; Tsuji, H.; Cho, M.; Toyoshima, M. Characterization and Comparison of CubeSat and Drone Platform Jitter Effects on Laser Beam Pointing Stability. Preprints 2022, 2022080206. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202208.0206.v1

Abstract

Adaption of laser communication terminals to airborne and lean-satellite platforms is now a vogue, made possible due to the progressing advancements in lightweight components and compactness of onboard electro-optical transceivers and control systems. This enables highly secured and superior data-transmission rates beyond multiple Gigabit/second on CubeSats and drones compared to Megabit/second rates offered by similar radio-transceivers form factors. However, laser-transmission links require a very stringent beam-pointing stability because they are easily perturbed by attitude variations and micro-vibrations generated by the host platform’s propulsion system or other mechanically active subsystems in proximity with the transmitter’s optical head. Severe line-of-sight jitter causes the downlink laser beam to drift from the targeted receiving system’s field-of-view, inducing pointing errors, increasing signal outage probability and information loss. We experimentally examine the platform jitter generated by the propellers of an hexacopter drone during ground operation and the attitude-control unit’s reaction wheels in a 6U CubeSat structure. We determined the vibration spectrum unique to these platforms and accordingly prescribe requirements for applicable optical fine pointing and disturbance isolation or suppression systems needed to achieve a high-fidelity laser-communication link.

Keywords

Laser Communications; Platform Jitter; Beam-pointing stability; Drone; CubeSat

Subject

Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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