Telescope of lossless intersatellite laser ranging for the SILVIA formation flying mission

This work proposes an optical telescope architecture for intersatellite laser interferometry missions SILVIA, where lossless intersatellite laser ranging is employed. To simplify link acquisition and reduce reliance on satellite attitude control, we propose a non-cooperative laser link approach. However, this approach poses two major challenges: both retroreflection and mode matching must be simultaneously achieved, and sharing a single telescope for transmission and reception makes independent bidirectional alignment nontrivial. To overcome these issues, we propose a new telescope design inspired by the cat’s-eye retroreflector and derive its parameters using ray-matrix analysis. Based on this design, we are currently developing an optical breadboard model (BBM). This talk presents the design concept and reports on the current BBM development status.