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https://www.sciencealert.com/new-laser-network-could-make-space-to-earth-contact-1000x-faster>
'A new 'laser-powered' project being launched in the state of Western Australia
could revolutionize global communications.
Two optical ground stations in a strategically placed network have successfully
received laser signals from a German satellite, researchers say, paving the way
to increase the capacity of space-to-Earth communications by a staggering 1,000
times.
The 'TeraNet' initiative is led by astrophotonics scientist Sascha Schediwy
from the University of Western Australia (WA) and funded by the Australian
Space Agency's Moon to Mars Demonstrator Mission.
"The overall aim of the project is to contribute towards Australia's vision for
the next generation of space exploration," Schediwy told ScienceAlert.
Since the launch of Spuntik I in 1957, satellites have communicated via radio
waves. Their low-frequency signal limits their capacity to transmit data, and
after nearly 70 years of development, radio-wave communications are becoming
unable to keep up with the enormous demand for data transfer.
"It's been pushed to the absolute extreme, but it's really now reached a
bottleneck," said Schediwy.
With thousands of satellites orbiting Earth, there's a huge volume of data
being collected that needs to be sent back down. High-frequency laser
communications could present a solution.
"By switching to infrared laser beams for communications, we get a factor of
100, or 1,000, times greater bandwidth," said Schediwy.
Among its many potential applications, the researchers hope this powerful
satellite communications system will help people feel more connected to space
exploration than ever before.'
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mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
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