TBIRD: a rapid prototyping approach for design, assembly, and test of a LEO-to-ground lasercom CubeSat

Noah C. Gilbert; Bryan C. Bilyeu; Joshua J. Brown; Jesse S. Chang; David R. Crompton; Ajay S. Garg; Andrew J. Horvath; Lawrence J. Petrilli; Robert S. Reeve; Kathleen M. Riesing; Bryan S. Robinson; Curt M. Schieler; Miyoung P. Schue; Joseph J. Scozzafava; Jade P. Wang

doi:10.1117/12.3028939

30 September 2024 TBIRD: a rapid prototyping approach for design, assembly, and test of a LEO-to-ground lasercom CubeSat

Noah C. Gilbert, Bryan C. Bilyeu, Joshua J. Brown, Jesse S. Chang, David R. Crompton, Ajay S. Garg, Andrew J. Horvath, Lawrence J. Petrilli, Robert S. Reeve, Kathleen M. Riesing, Bryan S. Robinson, Curt M. Schieler, Miyoung P. Schue, Joseph J. Scozzafava, Jade P. Wang

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 13133, Optical System Alignment, Tolerancing, and Verification XV; 131330E (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3028939
Event: Optical Engineering + Applications, 2024, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) system is a 3U payload on a 6U CubeSat launched in May 2022 which has now demonstrated space to ground links of >1 Terabyte (TB) per pass at a max data rate of 200Gbps. As a CubeSat mission, the development of the TBIRD payload was focused on low SWaP and a “rapid prototyping” approach which accepted higher risks to accelerate the schedule and reduce costs. The optomechanical design process followed standard in-house processes to develop a system that would be robust to LEO environmental loads, with a focus on the stability of the transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) channel performance metrics. The driving requirement of maintaining 20μrad pointing error between the TX and Rx channels forced specific attention to thermal and mechanical load changes over operational conditions, which drove major design decisions. This paper describes some of engineering challenges overcome and approaches used to make TBIRD a successful program, as well as some of the tradeoffs of rapid prototyping precision optical payloads. TBIRD successfully met and exceeded the total downlink requirements listed above, with a bandwidth of 200Gbps and a total downlink of 4.8TB of information in a single pass.

Conference Presentation

(2024) Published by SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Citation Download Citation

Noah C. Gilbert, Bryan C. Bilyeu, Joshua J. Brown, Jesse S. Chang, David R. Crompton, Ajay S. Garg, Andrew J. Horvath, Lawrence J. Petrilli, Robert S. Reeve, Kathleen M. Riesing, Bryan S. Robinson, Curt M. Schieler, Miyoung P. Schue, Joseph J. Scozzafava, and Jade P. Wang "TBIRD: a rapid prototyping approach for design, assembly, and test of a LEO-to-ground lasercom CubeSat", Proc. SPIE 13133, Optical System Alignment, Tolerancing, and Verification XV, 131330E (30 September 2024); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3028939

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