Update on the German and Australasian Optical Ground Station Networks
Abstract
Networks of ground stations designed to transmit and receive at optical wavelengths through the atmosphere offer an opportunity to provide on-demand, high-bandwidth, secure communications with spacecraft in Earth orbit and beyond. This work describes the operation and activities of current Free Space Optical Communication (FSOC) ground stations in Germany and Australasia. In Germany, FSOC facilities are located at the Oberpfaffenhofen campus of the Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt (German Aerospace Center, DLR), the Laser-Bodenstation in Trauen (Responsive Space Cluster Competence Center, DLR), and the Research Center Space of the University of the Bundeswehr Munich in Neubiberg. The DLR also operates a ground station in Almeria, Spain as part of the European Optical Nucleus Network. The Australasian Optical Ground Station Network (AOGSN) is a proposed network of 0.5 -- 0.7m class optical telescopes located across Australia and New Zealand. The development and progress for each node of the AOGSN is reported, along with optimisation of future site locations based on cloud cover analysis.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2402.13282,
title = {Update on the German and Australasian Optical Ground Station Networks},
author = {Nicholas J. Rattenbury and Joseph Ashby and Francis Bennet and Marcus Birch and John E. Cater and Kate Ferguson and Dirk Giggenbach and Ken Grant and Andreas Knopp and Marcus T. Knopp and Ed Kruzins and Andrew Lambert and Kerry Mudge and Catherine Qualtrough and Samuele Raffa and Jonas Rittershofer and Mikhael Sayat and Sascha Schediwy and Robert T. Schwarz and Matthew Sellars and Oliver Thearle and Tony Travouillon and Kevin Walker and Shane Walsh and Stephen Weddell},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.13282},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
17 pages, 12 Figures, Submitted to International Journal of Satellite Communications and Networking, Special Issue on Optical Space Communications