Laser Communication in Space

Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Tsukuba-based startup WarpSpace has selected its laser supplier for the communications network which it will soon establish in outer space.

WarpSpace was founded in August 2016 based on personnel who mainly have associations with the University of Tsukuba and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

The primary challenge the firm aims to solve relates to the fact that there are many operators of low Earth orbit satellites which are having growing difficulty transmitting high volumes of information from their satellites (routinely engaged in Earth observation missions) to their ground stations. This is because a sort of bottleneck has developed when it comes to gaining permission to use specific radio frequencies. Moreover, the number of radio frequency bands available is in any case limited.

The solution soon to be offered by WarpSpace is its WarpHub InterSat system. This will involve putting its own satellites into medium Earth orbit, where they can collect customer satellite data via laser communication and then relay it, again by laser, to the ground stations in an uninterrupted and near realtime fashion.

This service will be made available to customers–low Earth orbit satellite operators–on a commercial basis.

WarpSpace expects that its WarpHub InterSat system will be launched into space and made operational in stages over the course next few years.

In the latest news, it was announced last week that WarpSpace has selected Munich-based Mynaric as its supplier for its communications lasers, in particular Mynaric’s Condor Mk 3 terminals.

Mynaric executive Tina Ghataore commented, “We are grateful for WarpSpace to entrust us with the laser communication capabilities needed for their optical data relay satellite network.”

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