The PAT subsystem enabling rapid link establishment between SatLight terminals using GPS/GNSS-synchronized ephemeris data and fast steering mirrors.
Imagine two satellites hurtling through space at 7 km/s, thousands of kilometers apart, each trying to aim a hair-thin laser beam at the other. That’s the challenge of optical communication — and it’s why pointing, acquisition, and tracking is the make-or-break subsystem in every optical terminal. Miss by even a fraction of a degree and the link never forms.
NantNova’s TRACK system solves this with a fast steering mirror that sweeps the search area in a precise spiral pattern, locks onto the incoming signal, and hands off to fine tracking — all without a cooperative beacon on the other end. From cold start to locked link in under 60 seconds, every time.
The acquisition sequence starts before the terminals can even see each other. Both sides know roughly where to look thanks to GPS time-stamps and orbital predictions. TRACK uses that starting guess to aim its fast steering mirror — a tiny, ultra-responsive mirror that can redirect the beam hundreds of times per second.
From there, the mirror sweeps a tight spiral pattern across the search area. The moment the coarse sensor picks up a glint of light from the far terminal, it hands the signal to a fine tracking sensor that narrows the beam down to within 5 microradians of the target — roughly the width of a coin seen from 40 kilometers away. The whole sequence is fully autonomous: no ground commands, no cooperative beacon, no human in the loop.
Beacon-less acquisition in under 60 seconds with ≤5 μrad residual pointing — SatLight™ TRACK delivers rapid, reliable link establishment for optical communication terminals.