Satellite uses laser for gigabit data links in space

Technology News | August 8, 2019

By Wisse Hettinga

RF transmission Wireless Communications

EDRS-C is mainly used for the fast transfer of data from Earth observation satellites. In this way, the satellite ensures that data recorded worldwide from the Sentinel satellites of the European Earth observation programme Copernicus reaches the user faster. The EDRS-C satellite, built in Germany, weighs 3.2 tons and has a planned lifetime of 15 years. The control of the payloads and the EDRS-C satellite is carried out by DLR’s German Space Operations Centre near Munich on behalf of Airbus.

Hitherto, satellites are connected individually to one or more ground stations. With the development of EDRS, the operators are making a paradigm shift towards an optically networked satellite infrastructure with higher security and bandwidth. “This enables EDRS to transmit the captured images and data in near real time,” says Walther Pelzer, DLR Executive Board member responsible for Space Management.

Earth observation satellites provided an increasingly accurate picture of our planet, our environment and our climate. But they also produced more and more data in less time. At the same time, these data must be made available very quickly so that they can optimally prepare and accompany decision-making processes.

At a live demonstration in Brussels on 10 July 2019, the European “data highway in space” had already demonstrated its functionality: Within a few minutes, data from the Earth observation satellite Sentinel-1 was transmitted to the ground via a laser link in order to track ships and possible oil leaks. Normally, such a transmission would take several hours.

The programme’s first distribution node, EDRS-A, was launched on 29 January 2016 and has since offered its relay services for the transmission of data from four Sentinel satellites of the EU’s Copernicus Earth Observation Programme. The satellites use EDRS-A services on a daily basis. To date, more than 23,000 inter-satellite links have been successfully sent to Earth. EDRS-C will now double this capacity.

After a test and validation phase, the system will be fully operational with EDRS-C by the end of 2019. Parallel to the construction and launch of the existing EDRS satellites, technological development is continuing: LCT technology is to be used to increase the terminal’s data rate from 1.8 to 3.6 gigabits per second and to increase the possible distance for the connection from 40,000 kilometres to 80,000 kilometres.