Author(s)

Ph. Laurens, P. Faucher, E. Collados, A. Capitaine & E. Desplats

Abstract

The Semi-Conductor Laser Inter-Satellite Link Experiment (SILEX) is a very innovative program of the European Space Agency. Two optical terminals, PASTEL and OPALE, respectively on the SPOT4 satellite (low Earth orbit) developed by MATRA MARCONI SPACE under CNES contract, and on the ARTEMIS satellite (geostationary) developed by ALENIA under ESA contract, must be pointed to each other to within 2 microradians in the communication phase. To achieve this very high accuracy pointing, the Pointing, Acquisition and Tracking (PAT) system of each terminal provides high bandwidth (above 100 Hz), fine control capabilities so as to decrease the pointing jitter induced by host spacecraft disturbances. In this frequency band, the spacecraft and the optical te

Keywords