![]() The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency demonstrated the technology in 1995, successfully achieving 1 megabit per second data download speeds from its engineering test satellite KIKU-6, to a ground station in Tokyo.Today, a dozen or so companies, from startups to aerospace giants and major defense contractors are developing and selling free space optical technology, either to communicate with ground stations or between satellites in orbit or other spacecraft, with speeds up to 100 gigabits a second. The use of lasers to communicate data from satellites - sometimes called free space optical communications, or FSOC, - has been a theoretical possibility for more than 40 years. By that time, lasers were already a mature technology, used in consumer electronic devices like laserdisc or CD players. ![]() The technology has existed to encode data in visible light since the development of fiber optic communications in the ‘70s and ‘80s. From S-band through C-band, to X-band and K-band, radio frequency, or RF, satellite communications have evolved from low frequency dial-up speeds to today’s multi-gigabit per second very high throughput satellites using wavelengths under one centimeter.But the highest frequencies of all in the electromagnetic spectrum are in the visible light end of the spectrum, up to 10,000 times higher than even the highest frequency Ka-band RF. Physics defines the terrain of the search - communicating across the vast distances of space can only be accomplished using the electromagnetic spectrum, or EMS, where the higher the frequency (and the shorter the wavelength), the more data is encodable in the waveform. Here’s the latest on the space laser revolution and what it will mean for the satellite business.Shaun WatermanFebruary 22, 2022The story of satellite communications is a tale of the search for more bandwidth. ![]() The technology required is finally mature and the coming year will see the first broad deployment in commercial and defense systems. With frequencies thousands of times higher than radio frequency waves, visible light can carry orders of magnitude more data. ![]() March 2022 - Space Lasers Come of Age: Optical Communications for Satellites Are Ready for Prime Time | Via Satellite var utag_data = ("918570d68022c9bdf012e51ec8cd7b06") MenuVia SatelliteArchiveAuthorsSearchFacebookTwitterGoogle+YouTubeLinkedInSubscribeShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInFound inTechnologySpace Lasers Come of Age: Optical Communications for Satellites Are Ready for Prime TimeThe visible light spectrum is the next chapter for satellite communications. ![]()
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