Steering mirror assist for laser pointing

• Main Authors: Yang, Guangning, Chen, Jeffrey R
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 12.03.2019
• Subjects: ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; MEASURING; OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS, OR APPARATUS; OPTICS; PHYSICS; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; TESTING; TRANSMISSION

An apparatus for improving a pointing capability of an optical pointing system includes a star tracker attitude control system for maintaining an alignment between the optical pointing system and a target, a beam steering mirror controlled by the star tracker attitude control system to direct an optical signal to impinge on the target, a fixed optical assembly configured to direct a portion of the optical signal from the bean steering mirror into a field of view of a star tracker telescope of the star tracker attitude control system, and a detector array for detecting the portion of the optical signal superimposed over a location in a current star scene in the star tracker telescope field of view, where the star tracker attitude control system is configured to operate the beam steering mirror to maintain the optical signal on the target by maintaining the superimposed signal on the location in the star scene.