We are at both the SmallSat Symposium and the UAV Technology Conference USA in February.
Laser Communication. Made Scalable.
Welcome to the industrial age of laser communication!
Satellite Constellations
Satellite constellations are networks of several hundred to several thousand interlinked satellites that span the globe and which can deliver a secure broadband internet connection to any location on Earth.
Inter-Satellite Link
Inter-satellite links provide the high-speed connection between the numerous satellites that make up space constellations. These connections are made up of lasers capable of exchanging large quantities of data between the satellites at great speed.
Link distances of over 4,000 km have to be bridged by equipment that must endure the extreme vibrations of a rocket launch followed by years of harsh radiation and the severe temperature conditions of outer space.
Earth Observation
Earth Observation missions performed by satellites and from space stations monitor data about agriculture, greenhouse gases, shipping routes and a wide range of other factors. The more data that is recorded and transmitted back to Earth, the more precise are the resulting simulations – be it accurate weather forecasts or the flow of magma under the surface of the Earth.
Internet above the clouds
Globally, the need for fast, secure and ubiquitous network connectivity is advancing inexorably. Data networks such as the internet are now largely based on infrastructure on the ground which cannot be expanded arbitrarily for legal, economic or logistical reasons. The future, therefore, calls for an expansion of the existing network infrastructure into air and space. Mynaric provides laser communication products to establish the necessary data highways for constellations and other meshed networks in air and space.
Space-to-Ground Link
With an increasing number of Earth Observation satellites being launched into orbit every year, current technological limits mean that up to 30% of data collected about the planet is lost. Laser communication promises to resolve this bottleneck with ultra-high-speed space-to-ground links.
Inter-Platform Link
Inter-platform links provide the high-speed connections between the numerous drones or balloons that make up high-altitude constellations. They are the data highways – so-called ‘backbone’ – of constellations handling the aggregated data of several hundred to several thousand end users simultaneously.
A very high pointing accuracy is needed to establish a connection between the moving platforms – equivalent to hitting a coin that is falling out of a pocket from a mile distance.
High-Altitude Constellations
High-altitude constellations are communication networks consisting of laser-linked flying objects, such as drones or balloons, that stay aloft for several months at a time. They are capable of providing broadband internet connectivity for regions as large as entire countries and can be installed at short notice, for example as necessary in disaster relief scenarios.
Air-to-Ground Link
Air-to-ground links establish high-speed connections between airborne constellations or individual aircraft and ground stations using laser communication. They are used to establish a data highway to terrestrial network infrastructure or to downstream vast amounts of data.
Sophisticated software algorithms are needed to compensate for atmospheric distortions and allow reliable links to the ground.
Continuous Surveillance
All kinds of airborne vehicles, such as UAVs (drones), balloons and airplanes, continuously generate enormous amounts of data for government agencies, commercial applications and for scientific purposes. Laser communication allows downstreaming of such data securely in real time for research and interpretation.
Airplane Constellations
Airplane constellations are laser-linked networks of airplanes which provide lightning fast in-flight WiFi connectivity and real-time access to maintenance data from the ground to improve predictive aircraft management for cockpit and ground maintenance teams.
Weather/Clouds
Adverse weather does not affect or hinder connections between space constellations or airborne constellations as all these communication scenarios take place above usual weather phenomena such as cloud, fog, rain and snow.
Temporary Reconnaissance
Ad hoc data such as airborne video feeds of disaster-struck areas provide life-saving insights and seasonal hyperspectral-images are used for agricultural crop monitoring and optimization. Laser communication helps to downstream the large amounts of data to compact fixed or mobile base stations located anywhere from a city center to the middle of the desert, if necessary.
Urban Connectivity
Cities are typically connected using existing fiber optic cabling and, unlike rural areas, currently do not desperately need connections from constellations. But not everybody lives in cities, not every city can afford deploying fiber optic cables in the ground and many assets and devices generate valuable data in some of the most remote locations on Earth.
Constellations address these problems by providing economic wide-area broadband connectivity from above the clouds.
Energy Infrastructure
Numerous energy sources operate in remote parts of the world or offshore which makes them difficult to monitor and maintain. As fixed broadband connections are not possible in most of these far reaches, the solution comes from communication constellations in the sky.
Rural Connectivity
In many rural areas it is quite simply not geographically possibly, or economically sensible, to lay fiber optic cables. In moving the delivery of data above the clouds, a feasible and cost-effective solution for these sparse and remote regions of Earth is achieved.
Space Ground Station
Optical ground stations for space receive the laser communication signals sent from Earth observation missions or satellite constellations and typically feed them to the existing terrestrial network infrastructure for further distribution.
They need to establish a reliable link to their counterpart in space within seconds as satellites in low Earth orbit can typically only be seen for a couple of minutes from a fixed location.
Air Ground Station
Laser communication signals sent from airplanes, balloons and UAVs are received by compact optical ground stations for air.
The optical ground stations are so small they can fit on a van, allowing data analysis on-the-go, or they can sit on a building rooftop to connect to existing infrastructure.
Mobile Coverage
When natural disasters occur, response teams need to communicate using systems unaffected by geological or meteorological phenomena such as earthquakes or hurricanes. In moving communications into the sky and beyond, internet access is available regardless of the situation on the ground.
Remote Connectivity
Tracking and communicating with ships in the middle of the oceans is a serious challenge for current communications infrastructure. Constellations offer solutions to these problems by allowing constant broadband communication with ships and maritime infrastructure such as oil rigs in the more remote regions on Earth.