The Russians are causing problems again. It was reported this week that Russian spysats may have intercepted what were supposed to be secure comms from European GEO satellites several times during the past three years.
Lucky for Europe, Lithuanian optical comms startup Astrolight is working on a solution to keep space-based comms protected in the years ahead.
The company has three optical comms payloads flying on board customer satellites launching on SpaceX’s next rideshare mission, Transporter-16, according to Astrolight CEO Laurynas Mačiulis. These payloads will serve as demonstration flights for the future of Europe’s laser-enabled, space-to-ground secure communications.
“Once we get the signal that the customers are happy with it, we will invest more into building up the infrastructure,” Mačiulis told Payload.
Bundled up: Astrolight is working on multiple products to create a full suite of technologies for optical comms.
- The company is building an optical ground station in Greenland, which it expects to be operational by this summer.
- Astrolight is also upgrading its space-to-ground terminals based on lessons learned in these first flights.
Top down: While Astrolight is leading the development of the optical comms infrastructure, these projects are heavily funded by ESA’s ARTES ScyLight program for optical and quantum comms, which received nearly €1B in funding for the next three years at the latest ESA ministerial conference.
The ARTES program has funded—at least in part—Astrolight’s development of its optical ground station in Greenland, as well as the company’s next-gen optical satcom terminals.
ESA, the European Commission, and national governments across the continent are pushing hard on these technological advancements to ensure that nefarious actors can’t eavesdropp on future communications. ARTES funds, driven by national contributions, are being directed to projects in laser communications, quantum-encryption technology, and cybersecurity.
For optical communications, the idea is to make what Russia is doing on orbit near-impossible going forward.
“It would be almost impossible, or practically too difficult and not reliable, to try to block the [laser] links,” Mačiulis said. “That would make the comms very resilient and secure, so that the only other options that would be left would be to try to shoot down the satellite, which is always an option.”
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