Performance analysis of near-earth, lunar and interplanetary optical communication links

Abstract

The performance of near-Earth, lunar and interplanetary laser optical communications is investigated by using simulation models which were successfully verified in previous projects. The simulation models consider typical mission design parameters like transmit power and operation wavelength for the optical laser transmitters, different apertures of the optical telescope, varying distances between the Earth ground station and the spacecraft terminals, Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes (APD) or superconducting nanowire single photon detection (SNSPD) receivers, atmospheric disturbances like scintillation and absorption, background noises for the uplink and downlink and appropriate pulse position modulation (PPM) orders. Typical design parameters are those of published ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) missions. The investigations of laser optical communications for various system parameters and different distances between the Earth ground station and the spacecraft could also help to achieve an overview of free space and deep space optical communications for different orbit constellations for future missions with laser optical communication links.