6 ms·
World-first gigabit laser link between aircraft and geostationary satellite
- xnx 8mo agoImpressive! I believe round trip latency would be 0.5 seconds.
- 1e1a 8mo agoThat's ~162.5 MB in transit at any time
- zppln 8mo agoWeird.
- htgb 8mo agoShouldn't it be 1000/16 = 62.5? Impressive nonetheless, of course!
- kevincox 8mo agoExcellent for pingfs (https://github.com/yarrick/pingfs https://github.com/yarrick/pingfs)
- arethuza 8mo agoThat could you used like RAM like the delay-line memory used by early computers!
- kipchak 8mo agoThere's a patent (2017/0280211 A1) for using this as a data storage method, and there was a company called Lyteloop trying to leverage the idea for data storage with estimations for petabytes across constellation.
- myrmidon 8mo agoI'm really curious how the tracking works in such a system, and how "bad" the beam spread is (my impression is that from the diffraction limit alone the beam has to be spread over at least a ~10m radius after travelling 36000km). Some info on the laser itself would also be very interesting (power? wavelength?). Really cool project though!
- amelius 8mo ago> and how "bad" the beam spread is The spread makes the tracking easier, I suppose.
- TimorousBestie 8mo agoPerhaps a little, however. Different paths through the atmosphere will perturb the phase of the signal; depending on conditions not all of that ~10m beam width is going to decode with an acceptable bit error rate.
- mytailorisrich 8mo agoTracking and actuation is nothing new or particularly challenging, IMHO. It's the laser/optical part combined with throughput at that distance that is the main area of R&D, I think.
- cm2187 8mo agoBut that means you need to have a different laser pointed at every single individual aircraft right? Doesn’t really scale.
- amelius 8mo agoI suppose you can do time-sharing. And use mems-mirrors to quickly move the beam between different targets.
- esseph 8mo agoLaser TDMA! :-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-division_multiple_access https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-division_multiple_access
- voidUpdate 8mo agoIf starlink satellites get laser downlink, it might work :P
- cm2187 8mo agolaser downlink to one point, isn't it? Not to 300 moving aircrafts at once.
- eqvinox 8mo agoYou can probably do phased arrays. (It might already be a phased array.)
- Meneth 8mo ago"low-latency links", says the article. I wonder if they consider 500 ms ping to be low, or if they want to replace Geostationary with Low Earth Orbit.
- fidotron 8mo agoGetting it to work with one end stationary first sounds like a reasonable development plan. LEO adds a lot of complexity, but with huge benefits. OTOH the number of engineers that focus on throughput over latency is quite staggering.
- IrishTechie 8mo agoI guess if your goal is just to stream aircraft telemetry and black box like recordings then latency may not be high on the agenda.
- SiempreViernes 8mo agoI think it's the opposite? For small telemetry you want it now, but for the big data products there's no hope of "now" and so you settle for soon.
- connicpu 8mo agoBlack box data doesn't need that crazy throughput either though. Traditional RF is much easier to get right, and works even when the aircraft starts losing track of where it is and stops being able to track the satellite with its laser
- amarant 8mo agoLeo seems easier to me. Geostationary is really far away. Leo is much, much closer. It's easier to hit a buck thats running right past you than to hit a stationary target across the Atlantic. Especially if you yourself are on a moving platform
- pottertheotter 8mo agoI’ll take 500ms ping for those speeds while temporarily on a plane.
- utopiah 8mo agoNice, if you want a bit more details on the TNO side https://www.tno.nl/en/newsroom/2026/02/airbus-tno-demonstrate-secure-laser-link/ https://www.tno.nl/en/newsroom/2026/02/airbus-tno-demonstrat... relying on https://connectivity.esa.int/archives/projects/ultraair https://connectivity.esa.int/archives/projects/ultraair
- db48x 8mo agoSome miniaturization required.
- tart-lemonade 8mo ago> These developments entail a future where travellers could enjoy reliable, high‑speed internet while flying, and where people on ships or in vehicles crossing remote regions can stay connected without interruption. How reliable/feasible would this be on the ground? From what I understand, shining non-trivial lasers in the sky is a massive liability because of the potential to interfere with aircraft. I don't see anything about the wavelength used, but even if it's outside the visible spectrum, it would still be subject to interference from aircraft when used on the ground or at sea.
- Jtsummers 8mo agoOptical links are being developed for use from fixed ground stations. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46709548 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46709548 - Discussion from a month ago with several links for a recent example.
- joezydeco 8mo agoIt's being implemented. I thought I saw that Amazon Leo (nee Kuiper) was going to lean on it pretty heavily. https://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/47300-using-laser-transceivers-for-leo-satellite-links https://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/47300-u...
- mynameisvlad 8mo agoThat talks about inter-satellite links (which Starlink uses already). Parent comment asked about ground <-> sat
- philipwhiuk 8mo ago> Because laser beams spread far less than radio waves, they provide more secure links Basing your security on laser diffusion seems sus.
- Schlagbohrer 8mo agoIt's worth it as another layer of security. The beam width being so narrow means even intercepting it becomes harder. This is more relevant for down-to-earth links where the spot hitting the earth is so narrow it could be confined withing a geographically controlled area, rather than hitting an entire continent like longer wavelengths do.
- Tepix 8mo agoThese beams are much harder to detect and eavesdrop upon. You increase the difficulty for a remote attacker. I wouldn't stop encrypting the data, however: The Alphasat TDP‑1 has a telescope with an 135mm aperture. The beam diameter is likely to be at least 700m wide according to the diffraction limit.
- kube-system 8mo agoAll security is based on a combination of individually flimsy ideas
- nashashmi 8mo agoHow does Air force one accomplish their data connection?
- icegreentea2 8mo agoAir Force One (and all of the other US flying command posts) are basically giant collections of various antennas. Here's an article from 2017 about (then) recent installation of what were almost certainly satellite communication antenna. https://www.twz.com/10470/air-force-one-jet-reemerges-with-upgraded-communications-for-world-trip https://www.twz.com/10470/air-force-one-jet-reemerges-with-u...
- icegreentea2 8mo agoHere's a paper (from July 2025) on previous steps in this program, getting up the initial testing in flight. Maximum uplink laser power of 20W, though they got good performance all the way down to 2W. The sat has a laser pointing down that was used to help lock on, but it's not clear if it has any meaningful downlink capability, all discussions are about uplink capability. Lots a nerdy details here. https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/13699/136990D/Development-and-demonstration-of-an-airborne-laser-communication-system/10.1117/12.3075406.full https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of... In addition, here's a random paper on the testing performed on the space borne laser terminals - https://icsos2012.nict.go.jp/pdf/1569586689.pdf https://icsos2012.nict.go.jp/pdf/1569586689.pdf This tells us that the laser terminals have a FOV of +/-2.5mrad in acquisition mode (so before lock on), and +/-0.5mrad in communication/tracking mode. This corresponds ~100km and ~20km radius FOV from GEO to surface.
- dogma1138 8mo agoUplink alone can be significant for clandestine operations. You can have a stealth drone which is effectively invisible to SIGINT transmitting real time intelligence to a satellite whilst either operating autonomously or receiving commands via a wide area encrypted broadcast (yes I know you can theoretically detect receivers through signal attenuation but at these distances it’s effectively impossible to do).
- fc417fc802 8mo ago> yes I know you can theoretically detect receivers through signal attenuation but at these distances it’s effectively impossible to do Well if that's part of your threat model then you should also consider the RF put out by the motors. Remember the part where we densely blanked the inhabited parts of the world with highly sensitive antennas over the past 3 decades?
- Geof25 8mo agoYeah, spark of engine is something what can be seen on SIGINT for dozens of kilometers. So unless jet engine is used (which rarely is on reconnaissance drones) then the drone will be spark lighthouse in the sky.
- burnt-resistor 8mo agoI marvel at the ability to track a target in both directions ~40k+ km away while moving quickly (kinematic) considering atmospheric and relativistic effects.
- maxlin 8mo agoKinda cool but seems paltry during a time when we have Starlink, which also has space-to-space laser links between satellites, of 100-200Gbps in bandwidth. Though I suppose this is a bit safer from Kessler syndrome
- aaron695 8mo ago[dead]
- Nevermark 8mo ago> downloading an HD film takes only seconds. My apprehensions about living in GSO are over! The rate that comms are colonizing orbit, or I should say the acceleration rate, feels like it can’t last for more than another decade or so before hundreds of thousands of satellites become each others Kessler nightmare. But somehow, I expect systems will evolve to get much denser. it’s probable not too early to consider future ring structures, for mounted satellites? Or an optimized distribution of long parking “star-bars”. As apposed to the free for all? I expect reserved altitude shells, for space stations, depots and rocket/ship orbital maneuvers without the dodgeball.