The ESA has to say with success the European data relay system tested. Satellites can thus data to ground stations send by laserverbindingen with other satellites. They need not more directly in the sight of ground stations.
During the trial, with the so-called SpaceDataHighway, data exchanged via a direct laserverbinding between the Sentinel-1A and Alphasat. The two satellites were 45.000 km away from each other. With the laserverbinding, taking photographs of the earth’s surface were sent, was a speed achieved of 600Mbit/s, with a theoretical maximum speed of 1.8 Gbit/s.
According to the ESA, which is collaborating with Airbus Defense, the SpaceDataHighway technology be seen as ground-breaking as there by ground stations without the interruptions data of satellites can be read. This plays especially a role for satellites in a low orbit orbiting the earth, such as the Sentinel-1A. By with lasers dates by using the Alphasat, with a fixed position relative to the earth are jobs can have a ground control station continuous data from Sentinel-1A to receive.
ESA and Airbus want to the coming years with new satellites to further experiment with laser technology within the Copernicus earth observation programme. NASA is experimenting with lasers for communication in space, and knew with a data connection with the moon, a throughput rate of 622Mbit/s to achieve.
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