A presentation of the system approach and hardware implementation of a practical precision laser pointing and tracking system designed to enable operation of free-space optical (FSO) communication "lasercom" terminals which are in motion across a nominal range exceeding 100 km. The technique is applicable to other widely spaced mobile systems, which must remain accurately pointed toward one another. The system's initial pointing relies upon prior known or GPS-provided coordinates and subsequent tracking is maintained through the detection of a laser beacon signal emanating from the remote terminal. Besides meeting the range and accuracy goals for this particular communications application, a major consideration for the hardware design was to facilitate continuing product refinement and migration toward more compact, more robust, lower cost mobile or airborne systems suitable for production in quantity.

Date Published: 2 May 2006
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 6238, Acquisition, Tracking, and Pointing XX, 623803 (2 May 2006); doi: 10.1117/12.673544

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6238:
Acquisition, Tracking, and Pointing XX
Michael K. Masten; Larry A. Stockum; William E. Thompson, Editor(s)