Laser on board AO-40 (was[amsat-bb] To: amsat-bb@amsat.org)

["Joseph B. Fitzgerald" <jfitzgerald@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The laser is indeed aboard, perhaps to be tested some time this summer.
Being an infra red unit, you won't be able to see it with your eyes.  I
have been working on a design for a receiver, but the detector I selected
cost $400!  I have to continue my search for a lower cost unit.  The
receiver will not be a trivial unit .. we are talking about tens of
photons per bit.

I have a paper on my website that explains the details of the satellite
end see: http://members.bellatlantic.net/~km1p/IR_LASER_P3D.doc

One fine day I will write up my receiver research so far.
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