Development of acquisition and tracking sensor for next-generation optical inter-satellite communication

Laser-based optical inter-satellite communication equipment enables large capacity communication, which is essential for future observation satellites that handle huge amounts of data. One of the key technologies for optical inter-satellite communication equipment is the rapid, highly accurate acquisition and tracking of the corresponding satellite. Therefore we are developing a prototype of an acquisition and tracking system. Key specifications and experimental results of the sensor for the system are described in this paper.