A Star-Sensor Based Laser Pointing Error Correction Approach for Free-Space Optical Communication System

Laser pointing accuracy is one of the key performance indexes of pointing, acquisition and tracking (PAT) technology for free space optical communication (FSOC) system, which has important influence on the rapid acquisition of optical signals. At present, the error correction approach of laser pointing mainly achieved by the ground precision measurement of reference mirror installing on the optical antenna and obtain the correction parameters. The disadvantage of this method is that the error correction parameters will slowly drift with the deformation of optical antenna while the FSOC system operated on-orbit. In this paper, a star sensor-based laser pointing error correction method for FSOC system has been proposed. The laser pointing error model has been described, and the robust information fusion method based on the attitude data from star sensor has been developed. Numerical simulation results demonstrate that the novel error correction approach effectively improves the laser pointing accuracy.