Miniaturization and Evaluation of Laser Communication System for Satellite by 2-Axis Steering Mirror Mechanism

A laser communication system has an advantage of realizing the high speed transmission under the conditions of small size and low electrical power. The laser communication system requires a high accuracy of pointing control because of the directional characteristics of laser beam. Due to the attitude control accuracy of micro-satellites, the pointing device carried in micro-satellite is required to have mitigated pointing accuracy, wide range pointing, small size, mass and low electrical power. We have developed a new pointing device characterized by two-axis pointing control mechanism. Breadboard model of pointing control mechanism consists of steering mirror, angular sensor and electrical unit. The steering mirror mechanism is accomplished using rod-end-bearings. The pointing accuracy and the performance of tracking system of the laser communication device were evaluated in simulator of between satellite and ground station. This paper describes development of the breadboard model of pointing control mechanism and the performance evaluation.