Cubesat Lasercom System
An LED beacon for ground station geolocation for a nano satellite laser communication system will be designed constructed and evaluation. Laser communication requires a beacon for ground station localization. LED beacons have the potential to be cheaper and easier to implement with existing satellites than existing beacons. A model of the beacon system will be developed and used to predict array size. A modular array of LEDs will be built to demonstrate this method. The array will use parabolic mirrors to focus a beam of light for detection by a satellite mounted camera. The performance of the system will be assessed by observation by a quadcopter and satellite data and by power and thermal metrics.

In my senior year I would like to put substantial effort into a project I can be proud of. My SuperUROP will give me experience with space communications system a field that is one of my top choices for future work.