<title>Overview of the Ground-to-Orbit Lasercom Demonstration (GOLD)</title>

TLDR

The ground‑to‑orbit Lasercom Demonstration conducted between the ETS‑VI spacecraft and JPL’s Table Mountain Facility was the first two‑way optical communications experiment between ground and space. A key objective was to measure atmospheric attenuation and seeing during the demonstration to validate the optical link’s performance. The seven‑month demonstration involved coordinated operations from Tokyo and California, with telemetry from the laser equipment and downlinked PN data used to assess in‑orbit transmitter performance and measure bit error rates. Bit error rates as low as 10⁻⁴ on the uplink and 10⁻⁵ on the downlink were achieved, and measured signal powers matched theoretical predictions.

Abstract

The ground-to-orbit Lasercom Demonstration conducted between the ETS-VI spacecraft and the ground station at JPL's Table Mountain Facility, Wrightwood CA was the first ground-to- space two-way optical communications experiment. The demonstration was conducted over a period of seven months and required simultaneous and cooperative operations by team members in Tokyo and California. A key objective was to measure the atmospheric attenuation and seeing during the demonstration to validate the performance of the optical link. The telemetry downlinked from the laser communications equipment provided information on the in-orbit performance of the onboard laser transmitter. Downlinked PN data enabled measurement of bit error rates. BERs as low as 10<SUP>-4</SUP> were measured on the uplink and 10<SUP>-5</SUP> on the downlink. Measured signal powers agreed with theoretical predictions.