公开(公告)号：US20200021361A1

公开(公告)日：2020-01-16

申请号：US16579914

申请日：2019-09-24

Applicant: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Inventor： Ryan Wallace KINGSBURY ,  Kathleen Michelle RIESING ,  Kerri Cahoy ,  Tam Nguyen Thuc NGUYEN ,  David O. CAPLAN

IPC: H04B10/118

Abstract: Communication bottlenecks, particularly in the downlink direction, are a common problem for many CubeSat developers. As described herein, a CubeSat module for a CubeSat comprises an optical transmitter to transmit data to a remote terminal, a receiver to acquire an optical beacon from a remote terminal, and a fine-pointing module operably and directly coupleable to a coarse-pointing module of the CubeSat. The fine-pointing module is configured to point the optical transmitter toward the remote terminal with an accuracy range that overlaps with an accuracy range of the coarse-pointing module of the CubeSat so as to establish a communications link between the CubeSat and the remote terminal over a low-Earth-orbit (LEO) distance.