Both American and Chinese developers are also working on the urgent task of laser data transmission between devices of multi-satellite communication groups.
Russian researchers from MIPT have developed a prototype of a compact laser communication terminal for spacecraft, which will significantly accelerate data transmission to ground stations and ensure fast communication between the devices. The installation can also be used on small CubeSat-class spacecraft, MIPT reported.
"The laser system of young designers of the MIPT Physics and Technology School of Aerophysics and Space Research makes it possible to implement a fundamentally new quality connection with orbit and space, primarily due to high throughput," the message says.
In the near future, the developers plan to prepare and present to the public a new version of the prototype, which will have improved optics and will be fully ready for installation on board a real spacecraft.
According to the developers of the device, the space laser communication terminal they created consumes about 15 watts, and at the same time it is capable of transmitting data at speeds up to 100 Mbit/s at distances of about 1.5 thousand km.
The body and some other parts of the system were manufactured using three-dimensional printing systems and CNC machines, while all components of the system can fit in a small box, which can potentially be installed, including on board microsatellites.
In the future, the high speed of information exchange and the range of operation of this laser communication system will allow Russian orbital probes to exchange information both between devices in orbit and communicate with ground stations.
A large number of countries are engaged in the creation of multi-satellite systems. Multi-satellite groupings need an inter-satellite communication system. The use of lasers for this task has great potential, since the absence of atmospheric interference allows for high information transfer rates.
"Let's say there are 100-200 satellites in the system, between which communication needs to be established. This can be done using the inter-satellite Internet, having previously installed laser terminals on satellites. Such an Internet will allow you to instantly transfer, for example, an image taken by a satellite over Washington to Moscow. The fact is that it will take a long time for the satellite, which is located over America, to fly to Moscow, respectively, we will wait for several hours for the picture. With laser communication, this problem disappears: data will be transmitted from one device to another like a web," Ivan Zavyalov, a senior lecturer at MIPT, said in October 2022 about the participation of his institute in the work on the creation of a satellite laser Internet.
In December 2023, Amazon, as part of the Kuiper project, tested an optical inter-satellite connection (OISL) in low Earth orbit, in which satellites exchange information using infrared laser beams. During testing, two prototypes of the KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2 satellites were able to transmit 100 Gbit/s of information to each other using laser beams at a distance of almost 1 thousand km within an hour. Initial data showed that the network will be able to communicate between several satellites at the same time.
Inter-satellite laser communication has been tested since September 2020. another American company is SpaceX, as reported by Ars Technica. In 2022, the South China Morning Post wrote about the development of a satellite laser communication system by Beijing scientists.