Analysis and correction of geometrical error-induced pointing errors of a space laser communication APT system

Abstract The geometrical error caused pointing error is an inevitable problem in space satellite laser communication terminals which can affect the pointing accuracy of the APT (acquisition pointing and tracking) system greatly, in order to facilitate the assembling of the APT system and improve the performance of the laser communication system, the geometrical error sensitivity about the APT pointing accuracy is analyzed based on multi-body kinematics method in this paper, the error transformation matrix is derived and the geometrical error is analyzed, the simulation results provide some pointing error distribution regulars which are conductive to assembling. Based on the above research, the geometrical error correction experiment is performed and the pointing accuracy of the APT system is tested, the expectation value of the pointing error can reach 29.9 µrad which is greatly improved. This research can provide technical references for the design and analysis of space laser communication terminals.