Truck receives laser signal from space in first-of-its-kind demonstration

A German satellite sent a laser signal to a ground station mounted on a Jeep. This is a groundbreaking test that could significantly change communications between space and Earth: communication would become faster and there would be no more data congestion.

TeraNet, a network of optical ground stations, received the signal from a laser communications payload aboard the OSIRISv1 satellite in low Earth orbit. Two of TeraNet’s ground stations, including a custom-built Jeep truck with a built-in receiver, detected the signals.

Led by a team of researchers from the University of Western Australia, the demonstration hopes to establish communication between space missions in low Earth orbit, as well as on the moon. Since the first satellite was sent into space in 1957, space agencies have relied on radio waves to communicate with ground stations on Earth. It’s worked well so far, but as more satellites fill the orbit and demand for data continues to grow, there’s a bottleneck in the signals coming from space.

Optical communications, or lasers, can help solve this. This type of communications system packages data into oscillations of light waves in laser beams, encoding a message into an optical signal that is carried to a receiver via infrared rays that the human eye cannot see. Compared to radio waves, near-infrared light packages data into significantly tighter waves, allowing more data to be sent and received.

NASA is experimenting with space lasers, sending and receiving signals to refine the technology. In November 2023, the space agency’s Deep Space Optical Communications experiment sent data encoded in a near-infrared laser from nearly 10 million miles (16 million kilometers) out into deep space to the Hale Telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California. In December 2023, the gold-plated laser transceiver attached to NASA’s asteroid probe Psyche sent a 15-second video of an orange tabby cat named Taters chasing a laser pointer up and down a bench.

The private space industry is also getting in on the act. The space laser communications market was worth about $1.13 billion in 2022 and is expected to quadruple by 2031, according to estimates from Straits Research in Maharashtra, India.

According to NASA, optical communications could transmit data at speeds 10 to 100 times faster than the radio frequency systems used by spacecraft today. It becomes more difficult over longer distances, as it requires extreme precision to aim the laser beam. Weather can also pose a challenge for laser communications, as clouds or rain can disrupt the signal.

The TeraNet team built a network of three ground stations across Western Australia to overcome the weather problem, allowing the satellite to send its data to the station under the clearest skies. The truck used in the recent demonstration can drive to locations and pick up the signal within 15 minutes of arriving at its destination. The test paves the way for a 1,000-fold increase in communications bandwidth between space and Earth, UWA said.

“This demonstration is the first, crucial step in establishing a next-generation space communications network in Western Australia,” UWA Associate Professor Sascha Schediwy, who led the team, said in a statement. “Next steps include connecting this network to other optical ground stations currently being developed in Australia and around the world.”