The Flying Laptop is a German satellite, launched on 14 July 2017 on a Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and hosting the OSIRISv1 laser communications experiment.DLR laser terminal in space establishes contact with Japanese ground station Mar 2021 The satellite has a total mass of 110 kg. It operates at a Sun-synchronous orbit with an inclination of 97.6 degrees.
The satellite is part of the Stuttgart Small Satellite Program, a program led by the German Space Agency.
Optical communications tests have been carried out with ground stations in Japan, Europe, and Canada,Japan-Germany international joint experiment on space optical communication Mar 2021 with a data rate of up to 200 Mbit/s, from orbit to ground only.
The two fixed lasers of OSIRISv1 are aimed at ground stations by 'body pointing', attitude control of the entire satellite, using four reaction wheels.OSIRISv1 on Flying Laptop: Measurement Results and Outlook preprint Fuchs 2019 The reaction wheels can be desaturated using three internal magnetorquers.
Flying Laptop carries a de-orbit mechanism called DOM2500 developed by Tohoku University and manufactured by Nakashimada Engineering Works, Ltd., which upon activation will unfurl a sail to increase atmospheric drag. The device will be used at the end of the satellite mission.
Further reading OSIRISv1 on Flying Laptop: Measurement Results and Outlook Fuchs 2019
See also Laser communication in space
References