Patent ID: 7046934

Claim:
An optical communication system for achieving a clear optical path between earth and a spacecraft with minimal atmospheric disturbances, comprising: a ground station; a high altitude balloon system, said balloon system including: a balloon; an automated winch near said ground station and operatively connected to said balloon for launching and recovering said balloon; and a tether extending from said winch to said balloon; a transceiver attached to said balloon for transmitting or receiving optical data to and from the spacecraft; an acquisition, tracking and pointing system attached to said balloon for locating the spacecraft, said acquisition, tracking and pointing system including: a telescope; coarse pointing means, including a differential GPS system for determining a coarse attitude of said balloon relative to earth fixed coordinates, for determining based on said coarse attitude a coarse line of sight from said balloon to the satellite; a gimbal, operatively connected to said telescope and to said means for determining said coarse line of sight, for aligning said telescope with said coarse line of sight from said balloon to the satellite; and fine pointing means, using “blob coloring” of an optical signal received from the spacecraft through the coarsely aligned telescope, for further aligning said telescope with said spacecraft so as to center a field-of-view of said transceiver with the spacecraft, thereby enabling open channel optical communication between said balloon and the spacecraft; and a fiber optic cable attached to said tether and extending from said balloon to said ground station, enabling closed channel optical communication between said balloon and said ground station.