19 ms·
I'm really curious how the tracking works in such a system, and how "bad" the beam spread is (my impression is that from the diffraction limit alone the beam ha
by myrmidon 8mo ago
I'm really curious how the tracking works in such a system, and how "bad" the beam spread is (my impression is that from the diffraction limit alone the beam has to be spread over at least a ~10m radius after travelling 36000km).
Some info on the laser itself would also be very interesting (power? wavelength?).
Really cool project though!
- amelius 8mo ago> and how "bad" the beam spread is The spread makes the tracking easier, I suppose.
- TimorousBestie 8mo agoPerhaps a little, however. Different paths through the atmosphere will perturb the phase of the signal; depending on conditions not all of that ~10m beam width is going to decode with an acceptable bit error rate.
- mytailorisrich 8mo agoTracking and actuation is nothing new or particularly challenging, IMHO. It's the laser/optical part combined with throughput at that distance that is the main area of R&D, I think.