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Tracking Performance of Upgraded "Polished Panel" Optical Receiver on NASA's 34 Meter Research AntennaThere has been considerable interest in developing and demonstrating a hybrid "polished panel" optical receiver concept that would replace the microwave panels on the Deep Space Network's (DSN) 34 meter antennas with highly polished aluminum panels, thus enabling simultaneous opticaland microwave reception. A test setup has been installed on the 34 meter research antenna at DSS-13 (Deep Space Station 13) at NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California in order to assess the feasibility of this concept. Here we describe the results of a recent effort todramatically reduce the dimensions of the point-spread function (PSF) generated by a custom polished panel, thus enabling improved optical communications performance. The latest results are compared to the previous configuration in terms of quantifiable PSF improvement. In addition, the performance of acquisition and tracking algorithms designed specifically for the polished panel PSF are evaluated and compared, based on data obtained from real-time tracking of planets and bright stars with the 34 meter research antenna at DSS-13.
Document ID
20150007795
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Conference Paper
External Source(s)
Authors
Vilnrotter, Victor
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
May 8, 2015
Publication Date
March 2, 2013
Subject Category
Optics
Communications And Radar
Meeting Information
Meeting: IEEE Aerospace Conference
Location: Big Sky, MT
Country: United States
Start Date: March 2, 2013
End Date: March 9, 2013
Sponsors: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
optima
polished panel receiver
tracking algorithms
optical communications

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