One device will stand on the Progress, the second-on the ISS, and the communication procedure will be worked out between them
MOSCOW, August 23. /TASS/. The creation of a prototype of equipment for space laser communication is planned to be completed at the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - the All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics (RFNC-VNIIEF, Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod Region, part of the Rosatom state Corporation) by 2024. This was reported on Monday by the newspaper "Strana Rosatom".
"By order of RSC Energia, VNIIEF is creating equipment for space laser communication, which will transmit information via a light channel <...> from the Earth to low - orbit satellites," the publication says. Currently, the institute is completing the development of design documentation for the manufacture of prototypes of equipment.
"The radio communication currently used in space has a number of disadvantages," Sergey Grigorovich, a researcher at the RFNC - VNIIEF, is quoted in the article. - The frequencies are very low, we can transmit a small amount of information per unit of time - no more than 1 GB. Laser communication has a very high oscillation frequency, we can transmit up to 100 GB over one channel. Secondly, radio lines have large external fields, it is easy to intercept information. And the laser beam has a narrow orientation, it does not disperse at all in space, and it is almost impossible to intercept it. The radio frequencies are already all clogged, getting a channel is not an easy procedure. And the laser channels are located in the area of the electromagnetic spectrum that is not regulated, you will not have to get special permits for its use." The experiment with laser communication is planned for 2024. One device will be on the Progress, and the second one will be on the ISS, and the communication procedure will be worked out between them.
The RFNC-VNIIEF is also involved in the creation of the Spektr-UV observatory, known as the Russian Hubble. The observatory is designed for astrophysical studies in the ultraviolet and visible ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum with high angular resolution, as well as for recording gamma radiation in the energy range from 10 keV to 10 MeV. The area of responsibility of the Sarov nuclear center is the creation of a block of spectrographs for registering the ultraviolet radiation of stars and constructing their images in the UV and optical sections of the spectrum.
