Aas the Jpl Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory (octl) Test Bed for the Future Optical Deep Space Network

Relative to RF, the lower power-consumption and lower mass of high bandwidth optical telecommunications make this technology extremely attractive for returning data from future NASNJPL deep space probes. JPL is building an R&D optical communications telescope laboratory (OCTL) at the Table Mountain facility in Southern California. The telescope, scheduled for delivery in spring 2003, will among its early experiments use retro-reflector bearing satellites to assess multiple-beam strategies to mitigate the effects of atmospheric scintillation on the uplink beam that will serve to transmit commands or to serve as a beacon for the optical downlink. Designed to be an optical antenna for both daytime and nighttime communications, OCTL will serve as a test bed to evaluate strategies to support communications at small Sun-Earth-probe angles.