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Concept
Laser communication in space
Summary
Laser communication in space is the use of free-space optical communication in outer space. Communication may be fully in space (an inter-satellite laser link) or in a ground-to-satellite or satellite-to-ground application. The main advantage of using laser communications over radio waves is increased bandwidth, enabling the transfer of more data in less time.
In outer space, the communication range of free-space optical communication is currently of the order of hundreds of thousands of kilometers,. Laser-based optical communication has been demonstrated between the Earth and Moon and it has the potential to bridge interplanetary distances of millions of kilometers, using optical telescopes as beam expanders.
On 20 January 1968, the television camera of the Surveyor 7 lunar lander successfully detected two argon lasers from Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona and Table Mountain Observatory in Wrightwood, California.
In 1992, the Galileo probe proved successful one-way detection of laser light from Earth as two ground-based lasers were seen from by the out-bound probe.
The first successful laser-communication link from space was carried out by Japan in 1995 between the JAXA's ETS-VI GEO satellite and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT)s optical ground station in Tokyo achieving 1 Mbit/s.
In November 2001, the world's first laser intersatellite link was achieved in space by the European Space Agency (ESA) satellite Artemis, providing an optical data transmission link with the CNES Earth observation satellite SPOT 4. Achieving 50 Mbps across , the distance of a LEO-GEO link. Since 2005, ARTEMIS has been relaying two-way optical signals from KIRARI, the Japanese Optical Intersatellite Communications Engineering Test Satellite.
In May 2005, a two-way distance record for communication was set by the Mercury laser altimeter instrument aboard the MESSENGER spacecraft. This diode-pumped infrared neodymium laser, designed as a laser altimeter for a Mercury orbit mission, was able to communicate across a distance of , as the craft neared Earth on a fly-by.
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Free-space optical communication
Free-space optical communication (FSO) is an optical communication technology that uses light propagating in free space to wirelessly transmit data for telecommunications or computer networking. "Free space" means air, outer space, vacuum, or something similar. This contrasts with using solids such as optical fiber cable. The technology is useful where the physical connections are impractical due to high costs or other considerations. Optical communications, in various forms, have been used for thousands of years.