Alignment and Testing of the CubeSat Laser Infrared
CrosslinK (CLICK) Payloads
Name
lee-abbylee-masters-aeroastro-2026-thesis.pdf
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23.74 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
54d2fae1239993edda6d00eb423838b7
Author(s)
Lee, Abigail
Advisor(s)
Cahoy, Kerri
Date Issued
February 2026
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Optical communication can revolutionize satellite networks by enabling high-data-rate, power-efficient links. The CubeSat Laser Infrared CrosslinK (CLICK) mission aims to demonstrate optical crosslinks between small spacecraft using commercially available components in a low size, weight, and power (SWaP) 3U CubeSat platform. The mission consists of CLICKA, which demonstrated an optical downlink from low-Earth orbit in 2022, and CLICK-B/C, which aims to establish full-duplex optical crosslink communication and is the focus of this thesis. The payloads use two beams, a beacon beam at 980 nm and the data transmit beam at 1537 and 1563 nm, each transmit wavelength corresponding to a specific payload. In order to meet the mission data rate and range requirements, the alignment objective for the optical terminal is to achieve a 0.121 mrad transmit beam divergence and 39 µrad pointing accuracy. Optical link budgets for CLICK are used to assess the impact of optical alignment on mission performance, modeling as-built conditions including optical power, beam divergence, pointing accuracy, and receiver sensitivity. Methods for alignment and divergence testing have been developed, and measured flight telescope divergences of 0.217 mrad and quad cell pointing performance of 25 µrad have been achieved. Based on the alignment results, link budget simulations estimate the maximum range to be 350 km at 4-PPM modulation and 420 km at 8-PPM modulation. The optical terminals have been integrated into the payload and environmental testing is under way as of writing.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
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