La Agencia de Innovaci\u00f3n de Defensa de Francia (AID) junto con una peque\u00f1a empresa francesa, Cailabs, han logrado establecer una comunicaci\u00f3n satelital \u00f3ptica de alta velocidad entre un nanosat\u00e9lite en \u00f3rbita baja y una estaci\u00f3n terrestre \u00f3ptica comercial, una haza\u00f1a que, seg\u00fan afirman, es una primicia mundial. Las comunicaciones l\u00e1ser por sat\u00e9lite son un \u00e1rea de creciente inter\u00e9s para muchos gobiernos, que buscan hacer que Internet sea m\u00e1s resistente a los ataques de actores maliciosos, incluidos los que se realizan a trav\u00e9s de cables submarinos que actualmente transportan la mayor parte del tr\u00e1fico de Internet transatl\u00e1ntico. Adem\u00e1s, las comunicaciones l\u00e1ser, tanto entre sat\u00e9lites como entre sat\u00e9lites y estaciones terrestres, permiten la transmisi\u00f3n de mayores cantidades de datos en per\u00edodos de tiempo m\u00e1s cortos.<\/p>\n
PARIS \u2014 France\u2019s Defense Innovation Agency (AID) together with a small French company,\u00a0Cailabs<\/a>, have succeeded in establishing a high-speed optical\u00a0satellite communication\u00a0<\/a>between a nano-satellite in low orbit and a commercial optical ground station \u2014 a feat that they claim is a world first.<\/p>\n The French Defense Ministry said in a Sept. 10 statement that this project contributes to the objectives of the 2024-2030 military programming law, which provides for the country\u2019s effort to up its military space game.<\/p>\n Satellite\u00a0laser communications<\/a>\u00a0is an increasing area of interest for many governments as they seek to make the internet more resilient to attacks by bad actors, including those on subsea cables that currently carry most transatlantic internet traffic. Further, laser communications both between satellites and between satellites and ground stations enable the transmission of larger amounts of data in shorter time frames.<\/p>\n Jean-Francois Morizur, co-founder and CEO of\u00a0Cailabs, which developed the optical ground station, told Breaking Defense in a telephone interview that \u201cothers have already demonstrated the proof of concept that a laser link can be established between a satellite and a ground-station but we are proposing an actual product that exists and can be bought off-the-shelf.\u201d<\/p>\n Morizur revealed that the company has \u201calready sold seven, at least seven we\u2019re allowed to talk about, to South Korea, Australia, Greece, France and the United States.\u201d He specified these ground stations had been bought both directly by the nations or else by companies which worked for governments.<\/p>\n The Cailabs ground station \u201cis a white dome that measures around four metres in diameter with a large telescope that sticks out of it.\u201d He explained that the technology lies in the way the light is treated once it\u2019s entered the telescope.<\/p>\n The laser communication terminal aboard the nano-satellite, made by Unseenlabs, another small French company, also is an off-the-shelf product. These terminals \u201care sold by lots of companies and thanks to the US Space Development Agency, they are all required to be interoperable,\u201d Morizur explained.<\/p>\n