In December 2014, the European Space Agency (ESA) together with partner organizations finalized the first gigabit transmission via laser between one satellite in low-Earth orbit and another in geostationary orbit.
The new laser data transmission could help getting crucial information to the ground more efficiently by enabling satellites in different orbits to communicate faster with one another.
This innovative transmission method could enhance Earth observation, security and disaster management operations.
The Laser Communication Terminal (LCT) technology, employed in the mission, was elaborated by Airbus Defence and Space subsidiary Tesat-Spacecom of Backnang, Germany, and the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
The project aims at transmitting images by laser from Sentinel-1A -that performs radar observations of the Earth’s surface from an altitude of about 700 km- to Alphasat -Europe’s largest telecommunications satellite, which inhabits a geostationary orbiting at about 36,000 km- so that data can reach the ground in near-real time.
“You can visualize the link of today as an optical fiber in the sky that can connect the Sentinels back home to Europe, from wherever they are on their orbit around Earth,” said ESA's Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications Magali Vaissiere. “The link is operated at 1.8 Gbps, with a design that could scale up to 7.2 Gbps in the future. Never has so much data traveled in space.”
