Laser communication in space
[4] The first successful laser-communication link from space was carried out by Japan in 1995 between the NASDA's ETS-VI GEO satellite and the 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT)'s optical ground station in Tokyo achieving 1 Mbit/s.
[9] In 2006, Japan carried out the first LEO-to-ground laser-communication downlink from JAXA's OICETS LEO satellite and NICT's optical ground station.
[14] In September 2013, a laser communication system was one of four science instruments launched with the NASA LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer) mission.
After a month-long transit to the Moon and a 40-day spacecraft checkout, daytime laser communications experiments were performed over three months during late 2013 and early 2014.
A laser terminal of the German company Mynaric (formerly ViaLight Communications) was used to transmit data at a rate of 1 Gbit/s over a distance of 60 km and at a flight speed of 800 km/h in daylight.
Data from the EU Sentinel-1A satellite in LEO was transmitted via an optical link to the ESA-Inmarsat Alphasat in GEO and then relayed to a ground station using a conventional Ka-band downlink.
[25][26] In December 2014, NASA's Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) announced a breakthrough in space-to-ground laser communication, downloading at a speed of 400 megabits per second.
[30] In February 2016, Google X announced to have achieved a stable laser communication connection between two stratospheric balloons over a distance of 100 km (62 mi) as part of Project Loon.
[34][35] In June 2021, the US Space Development Agency launched two 12U CubeSats to Sun-synchronous orbit to demonstrate laser communication links between the satellites and a remotely controlled MQ-9 Reaper.
[41] Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) will demonstrate in 2022 the fastest bidirectional lasercom link between the geosynchronous orbit and the ground at 10 Gbit/s by using the HICALI (High-speed Communication with Advanced Laser Instrument) lasercom terminal on board the ETS-9 (Engineering Test Satellite IX) satellite,[42] as well as the first intersatellite link at the same high speed between a CubeSat in LEO and HICALI in GEO one year later.
"[44] LunaNet is a NASA and ESA project and proposed data network aiming to provide a “Lunar Internet“ for cis-lunar spacecraft and installations.
The most promising commercial applications can be found in the interconnection of satellites or high-altitude platforms to build up high-performance optical backbone networks.
Other applications include transmitting large amounts of data directly from a satellite, aircraft or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to the ground.
[45] Multiple companies and government organizations want to use laser communication in space for satellite constellations in low Earth orbit to provide global high-speed Internet access.
[81] Assuming available laser technology, and considering the divergence of the interferometric signals, the range for satellite-to-satellite communications has been estimated to be approximately 2,000 km (1,200 mi).
