• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.237-245
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• 2023

Laser communication has been considered as a novel method for earth observation satellites with generation of high data volume. It offers faster data transmission speeds compared to conventional radio frequency (RF) communication due to the short wavelength and narrow beam divergence. However, laser beams are refracted due to atmospheric turbulence between the ground and the satellite. Refracted laser beams, upon reaching the receiver, result in angle-of-arrival (AoA) fluctuation, inducing image dancing and wavefront distortion. These phenomena hinder signal acquisition and lead to signal loss in the course of laser communication. So, precise alignment between the transmitter and receiver is essential to guarantee effective and reliable laser communication, which is achieved by pointing, acquisition, and tracking (PAT) system. In this study, we simulate the effectiveness of tip/tilt compensation for more efficient laser communication in the satellite-ground downlink. By compensating for low-order terms using tip/tilt mirror, we verify the alleviation of AoA fluctuations under both weak and strong atmospheric turbulence conditions. And the performance of tip/tilt correction is analyzed in terms of the AoA fluctuation and collected power on the detector.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.403-409
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• 2014

For ground-based telescope application, the performance assessment of tip-tilt actuator is important because the optical quality of telescope depends upon the windshake compensation ability of the fast steering secondary mirror. But it is difficult to measure the performance characteristics of the actuators due to the large size mirror and test facilities including the vacuum support and structural frame. In this paper, the full-scale tip-tilt test bed for the large size secondary mirror with diameter of 1m is built and the several tests are performed including the range, resolution and frequency response function. From the measurement results, it is shown that the tip-tilt actuator can successfully compensate the windshake with frequency of maximum 12 Hz and be a candidate for the Giant Magellan Telescope.