Laser or optical satellite communications is moving rapidly from laboratory curiosity to commercial reality, with multiple programs either already deployed or in advanced development, speakers said at SATELLITE 2022.
Derek Tournear, director of the Space Development Agency (SDA), said the agency’s Transport Layer — a constellation of hundreds of satellites using optical inter-satellite links — was on track to deliver its first tranche of 28 satellites this year. “We’re going to have a proliferated LEO constellation. We’re going to have optical crosslinks. We’re going to have a mesh network in space. And we’re going to be able to deliver that capability to the warfighter.”
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Bulent Altan, CEO of Mynaric, said the company was ramping production of its laser communication terminals to meet demand from SDA and commercial customers. “We’re not talking about one-offs anymore. We’re talking about mass production. We need to produce hundreds, eventually thousands of units.”
Pancham Shukla of Airbus Defence and Space said GEO operators are also increasingly interested in laser links for inter-satellite connectivity. “The capacity that you can get with optical is orders of magnitude more than what you can do with RF.”
Tim Cornwell of Hughes noted that ground-to-space optical links face atmospheric challenges that inter-satellite links don’t — but that solutions like adaptive optics and site diversity are making them increasingly viable. Panelists agreed that the market for optical communications is set to grow dramatically as constellations scale up. VS
