The Western Australian Optical Ground Station

TL;DR

The paper details the development of the Western Australian Optical Ground Station, which uses advanced stabilization technology to enable high-speed, secure, and stable optical space-ground communications, supporting future space applications.

Contribution

It introduces the architecture and commissioning of a novel optical ground station with integrated amplitude and phase stabilization for improved free-space optical links.

Findings

Successful integration of stabilization technology into the ground station.

Establishment of stable, coherent free-space links despite atmospheric turbulence.

Potential for high-speed and quantum-secured communications.

Abstract

Free-space communications at optical wavelengths offers the potential for orders-of-magnitude improvement in data rates over conventional radio wavelengths, and this will be needed to meet the demand of future space-to-ground applications. Supporting this new paradigm necessitates a global network of optical ground stations. This paper describes the architecture and commissioning of the Western Australian Optical Ground Station, to be installed on the roof of the physics building at the University of Western Australia. This ground station will incorporate amplitude- and phase-stabilisation technology, previously demonstrated over horizontal free-space links, into the ground station's optical telescope. Trialling this advanced amplitude- and phase-stabilisation technology, the ground station will overcome turbulence-induced noise to establish stable, coherent free-space links between ground-to-air and ground-to-space. These links will enable significant advances in high-speed and quantum-secured communications; positioning, navigation, and timing; and fundamental physics.