Oxford-based laser communications company Archangel Lightworks has successfully completed field trials of the TERRA-M, the world's smallest deployable operational optical ground station.
The trials were funded by the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and saw the ground station, which is approximately the size of a mini-fridge, securely and rapidly transfer data between itself and a satellite in low-Earth orbit (LEO).
The TERRA-M was placed in an unspecified location in the Mediterranean and, during a 90-second satellite pass, many gigabytes of data were downloaded, proving the capability of its laser communications technology.
Laser communications transmit information using very low power, non-visible light instead of radio waves. As light has a much shorter wavelength than radio waves, it can transmit more data per second. These narrow beams are very difficult to detect and intercept, and also reduce the chance of overlap or interference with other networks and...