The beacon is a powerful non-coherent CW laser source which is developed in the frame of the Semi-conductor Inter-satellite Link Experiment (SILEX). Its functionality is to provide a high divergence beam during the first tracking sequence. It is made up of 19 laser diodes coupled into one multi-mode fiber, the exit face of that fiber being integrated at the focal plane of a collimator. A breadboarding phase has been conducted at the beginning of the phase C/D in order to demonstrate that the requirement of 8 KW/Sr within a divergence of 11.75 mRd will be achieved. That phase is now completed and the overall breadboard performance is discussed in this paper with respect to the SILEX requirements.
Optical telecommunications: expected performance of the beacon
Space Optics 1994: Space Instrumentation and Spacecraft Optics ; 1994 ; Garmisch,Federal Republic of Germany
Proc. SPIE ; 2210
1994-09-30
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English