The French company and the French National Space Research Center jointly developed and evaluated atmospheric turbulence compensation modules. This 18-month project aims to improve laser pointer satellite communication solutions by developing a module that compensates for atmospheric turbulence. In order to achieve this goal, the two organizations, with the support of CNES, will concentrate their respective expertise in beam shaping, optical communications in turbulent environments, and orbital systems.
The company in Rennes, France, is a technology company that develops photonic solutions to maximize the industrial potential of beam shaping. The company will cooperate with the French Aerospace Laboratory ONERA to participate in the research and technology programs of the French National Space Research Center. Named “Orbital System”, it aims to improve laser satellite communications.
It is reported that at the latest SPIE remote sensing digital conference, some background of this work was introduced in the turbulence simulator for adaptive optics system evaluation under the background of ground-satellite optical link. Multi-plane light conversion technology allows us to shape the beam extremely accurately. This allows us to collect a beam of light in a standard telecommunication fiber, even if its disturbance is very large. ”
The optical department has more than 20 years of experience in the research and implementation of adaptive optical systems for optical communications. It will work with Cailabs to develop this new technology and evaluate its performance on representative links, such as links modeled by optical stations.
By cooperating with the French National Center for Space Research and other French organizations that are internationally recognized in the field of space-based communications, we hope to contribute to the rise of the French optical space communications industry. The CEO of the company said: “This is of course a technical and industrial issue, but it is also a sovereign issue because it is directly related to ensuring the security of communication means.”
In the long term, the ambition of this Rennes-based company is to achieve widespread deployment of laser communications, not only communications with satellites, but also communications between ships, aircraft, and drones. These applications are being closely watched by the civilian and military sectors.
Laser communications was “stationed” in space in 2001, an inter-satellite link operated by the French National Space Research Center and ESA. In the past 20 years, the explosive growth of in-flight data processed by new telecommunications satellites and observation satellite constellations has changed the rules of the game. Nowadays, satellites send dozens of megabytes of information back to the earth every day, and its throughput rate is difficult for radio frequency technology to keep up.
The advantage of laser communication lies in its almost unlimited theoretical throughput. It has been widely deployed in terrestrial telecommunications infrastructure through optical fiber, using standard mature components. In addition, unlike radio frequency, laser communications are difficult to detect, and they are not susceptible to interference. These are all important issues of space-based communications that are closely related to national defense.
The “Orbital Project” aims to develop and evaluate an innovative atmospheric turbulence compensation module performance module, which is specifically designed for green laser pointer communications and satellites. One of the main obstacles to the deployment of laser communication technology is the efficient and competitive interface between space light and standard terrestrial telecommunications equipment. The atmosphere is non-uniform, and it is disturbed by atmospheric turbulence, which distorts the light wave surface and hinders the coupling of standard optical components.