{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T01:26:33Z","timestamp":1760145993434,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":18,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"19","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,9,26]],"date-time":"2024-09-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1727308800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems","award":["CE170100009","CE230100016"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CE170100009","CE230100016"]}]},{"name":"Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery","award":["CE170100009","CE230100016"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CE170100009","CE230100016"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Inter-satellite interferometric missions are critical in the ongoing monitoring of climate change. Next-generation Earth geodesy missions are opportunities to improve on mission cost and measurement sensitivity through revised design. To be considered feasible, mission architectures must meet an optical power requirement that factors in both shot noise and laser frequency noise. Reference-transponder mission configurations, like the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment-Follow On (GRACE-FO) mission, are designed for measurement down to a received carrier-to-noise density ratio of 70 dB-Hz\u20141.9 picowatts in shot-noise-limited detection. This work shows, through modeling and simulation, that the optical power level required to perform robust measurement varies significantly between mission configurations. Alternate configurations, such as retro-reflector-based schemes, can operate robustly down to much lower carrier-to-noise density ratios, with the example parameters considered here: down to 29 dB-Hz\u2014150 attowatts in shot-noise-limited detection. These results motivate exploration of alternate missions configurations with revised optical power requirements, increasing the feasibility of new designs.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs16193598","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,9,26]],"date-time":"2024-09-26T11:40:27Z","timestamp":1727350827000},"page":"3598","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Comparing Link Budget Requirements for Future Space-Based Interferometers"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0000-2826-4209","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Callum Scott","family":"Sambridge","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics, Research School of Physics, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7756-3651","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jobin Thomas","family":"Valliyakalayil","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics, Research School of Physics, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1463-4595","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kirk","family":"McKenzie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics, Research School of Physics, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,9,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"931","DOI":"10.2514\/1.A34326","article-title":"GRACE-FO: The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On Mission","volume":"56","author":"Kornfeld","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. 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