Pointing, acquisition, and tracking for the TBIRD CubeSat mission: system design and pre-flight results

Kathleen M. Riesing; Curt M. Schieler; Joshua J. Brown; Jesse S. Chang; Noah C. Gilbert; Andrew J. Horvath; Lawrence J. Petrilli; Robert S. Reeve; Bryan S. Robinson; Joseph J. Scozzafava; Jade P. Wang

doi:10.1117/12.2615323

4 March 2022 Pointing, acquisition, and tracking for the TBIRD CubeSat mission: system design and pre-flight results

Kathleen M. Riesing, Curt M. Schieler, Joshua J. Brown, Jesse S. Chang, Noah C. Gilbert, Andrew J. Horvath, Lawrence J. Petrilli, Robert S. Reeve, Bryan S. Robinson, Joseph J. Scozzafava, Jade P. Wang

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 11993, Free-Space Laser Communications XXXIV; 119930Q (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2615323
Event: SPIE LASE, 2022, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

The Terabyte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) program will establish a communication link from a nanosatellite in low-Earth orbit to a ground station at burst rates up to 200 Gbps. The TBIRD payload is currently in the process of integrating with the 6-U CubeSat host bus and pre-flight testing has been completed. An overview of the pointing, acquisition, and tracking system for TBIRD is provided as well as a summary of results from pre-flight testing. TBIRD relies on the spacecraft bus to implement fine pointing corrections supplied by its quad sensor at a rate of 10 Hz. The measured accuracy of pointing feedback is about 10 μrad RMS per axis. A custom optical assembly was designed for transmitter/receiver alignment stability which was measured to be within 25 μrad two-axis through environmental testing. With TBIRD feedback in the loop, single axis pointing accuracy of the downlink is predicted to be about 30 μrad RMS.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Kathleen M. Riesing, Curt M. Schieler, Joshua J. Brown, Jesse S. Chang, Noah C. Gilbert, Andrew J. Horvath, Lawrence J. Petrilli, Robert S. Reeve, Bryan S. Robinson, Joseph J. Scozzafava, and Jade P. Wang "Pointing, acquisition, and tracking for the TBIRD CubeSat mission: system design and pre-flight results", Proc. SPIE 11993, Free-Space Laser Communications XXXIV, 119930Q (4 March 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2615323

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