The SILEX optical interorbit link experiment

The European Space Agency (ESA) has instigated an in-orbit demonstration project known as SILEX (semiconductor laser intersatellite link experiment) using a pre-operational link between the French SPOT-4 low earth orbit satellite and the ESA Advanced Relay and Technology Mission Satellite (ARTEMIS). Such an optical communication system brings some new and challenging requirements. In particular, the communication beam, which has a divergence of around 6 μrad, must achieve and maintain a very demanding pointing accuracy in the presence of both host satellite vibration and relative satellite motion. The authors provide an overview of the SILEX project and describe a novel pointing mechanism