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DoD space agency funds development of laser terminal that connects to multiple satellite at once:
The Space Development Agency [SDA] awarded BridgeComm and Space Micro a $1.7 million contract to demonstrate point-to-multipoint communications
Each of the satellites in the Pentagon’s planned mesh network of communications satellites could have as many as many as four laser links so they can talk to other satellites, airplanes, ships and ground stations.
Optical inter-satellite links are critical to the success of the Space Development Agency’s low Earth orbit constellation — known as Transport Layer — that will be used to route data traffic. Lasers provide much higher transmission data rates than traditional radio-frequency communications but are also far more expensive.
SDA recently awarded nearly $1.8 billion in contracts for 126 satellites for the Transport Layer. By some estimates, about $500 million of that total would be for optical terminals, said Michael Abad-Santos, senior vice president of business development and strategy at BridgeComm, a Denver-based optical communications startup.
The company developed a so-called “one-to-many” optical communications technology for point-to-multipoint transmissions. This technology could help reduce the cost of building constellations by requiring fewer terminals, Abad-Santos said.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 14 2022, @06:00PM (3 children)
If I wanted to put a multi-laser weapon in space I'd disguise it as a com sat and actually use it that way... until the day when you need to flip a switch to turn up the laser output to weapon status.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 14 2022, @06:39PM (2 children)
Good luck building a laser capable of operating in both modes. Assuming it is even possible I suspect it would make even the SLS look cheap.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 14 2022, @07:06PM
Shhhhhhh, don't go ruining a good fantasy in his head.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 15 2022, @02:21AM
Uh... It's easier than you think.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 14 2022, @06:46PM (2 children)
For Starlink satellite communication?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 14 2022, @08:22PM
No, not in any meaningful way. Lots of talk about it, though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 15 2022, @02:08AM
Starlink has point-to-point lasers and one-to-many radios. This is something they might be interested in as an upgrade, assuming the price is low enough.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday March 14 2022, @08:16PM (2 children)
Lasers, eh? Light, maybe? What frequency range do they use to get through clouds?
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday March 15 2022, @01:56PM (1 child)
Does your radio, TV, and cell phone stop working when it's cloudy? All of them transmit and/or receive light, just frequencies of light that are invisible to you. LASERs aren't confined to visible light. A photon is a photon no matter what its frequency.
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 15 2022, @07:16PM
Does your radio, TV, and cell phone stop working when it's cloudy?
It's a scientific fact that clouds do indeed affect radio and light... you unscientific Jack.