Spaceborne CO2 laser communications systems

Projections of the growth of earth-sensing systems for the latter half of the 1980's show a data transmission requirement of 300 Mbps and above. Mission constraints and objectives lead to the conclusion that the most efficient technique to return the data from the sensing satellite to a ground station is through a geosynchronous data relay satellite. Of the two links that are involved (sensing satellite to relay satellite and relay satellite to ground), a laser system is most attractive for the space-to-space link. The development of CO2 laser systems for space-to-space applications is discussed with the completion of a 300 Mpbs data relay receiver and its modification into a transceiver. The technology and state-of-the-art of such systems are described in detail.