We are in 2028 and two points on Earth thousands of kilometers apart need to “talk” to each other. At that moment a satellite 36,000 kilometers from the surface at 39° east in the sky is being commanded by Greek and Cypriot operators. A laser beam system will respond and transfer a huge data packet safely and at high speed. This laser communication will also write technological history since the Optical Load of Communication Systems that the Hellas Sat 5 satellite will have on it will allow the new era of telecommunications to begin. For the first time in the history of the operation of telecommunication satellites, the laser system will transfer the voluminous data packets in a minimum of time…

– No, this is not about scenes from a science fiction movie, but about the new satellite that will be located in the Greek “space plot” of Greece in the sky…

“Hellas Sat 5 is the first operational project dealing with a laser passing through the atmosphere. It’s been twenty years since we’ve been developing lasers for communication, and there have been many changes since we started dealing with laser communication in space. But it is only recently that we have improvements in applications on the ground that allow this historic moment. We have improved the capacities with which we have increased the data transmission volumes on the ground, the equipment has also improved, equipment that we will similarly use in order to reach these high speeds”, explained to “Agency 104.9FM” o French specialist in optical communication technology peak, Cyrille Laborde, Quantum Communications and Optical Communications Capture scientist.

Greek-French technological cooperation

With the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Cooperation between them Hellas Sat and the European one Thales Alenia Space France for the installation of high-speed optical laser telecommunications on the Hellas Sat 5 satellite, the scenario began to materialize. The preparatory work started a few years ago after Greeks, Cypriots and Europeans defined “…already the next steps for the Optical Communications Payload of the satellite, the optical telecommunications load that must be placed and hosted on the new Hellas Sat 5” as he explained speaking of the same project Ms Lucie Metenier, Sales Manager for Europe and North America in the telecommunications sector of Thales Alenia Space. He even explained that it is a broad collaboration based on the participation of the French Space Agency, CNES, but also on the work of ESA, which is the European Space Agency, a very important collaboration with scientists from Italy, Switzerland, and other countries Europe .«We are talking about 100 Gigabits per minute which is extremely good for this commercial use. With Hellas Sat we have been more than partners for many years and for a long time they have shown interest in new technologies concerning the future of satellites, for optical telecommunications which is the next step when we compare it to radio frequencies. So we are investing in this new technology,” said the European aerospace industry executive.

Technology leap after decades

For this particular satellite to be the first in the world with a commercial laser satellite required persistence and patience. “Optical communications do not interfere, they are safe, they are very fast. From this particular satellite we will have ten laser beams of 100 Gigabits each. In other words, we will have a total of one terabit volume of information exchange in space. It is an information bridge our new satellite, the next one in Space, one terabit speed, optical fiber speed. Therefore, the technology has now matured and since it has matured, we said that we must launch Hellas Sat 5. We were waiting for the technologies to be mature in order to be the first…” explained Mr. Christodoulos ProtopapasCEO of Hellas Sat, when asked how it became possible for Greece and Cyprus to cooperate first with France, so that Hellas Sat 5 has high-speed optical laser telecommunications.

It was preceded by a long investigation. “In 2018, we started contacts with manufacturers in Europe, America, we even went to Argentina, but also to Singapore… We saw all the solutions and found that the technology has now matured and the time has come for us to be able to we have in Geostatic orbit – it is a distance of 36,000 kilometers above the surface of the sea – optical laser telecommunications. In any case, it was much more difficult to communicate with a laser there, than in a lower orbit that is 300 kilometers above the Earth…” he said.

Greater global need for security

At the same time, the technology has matured in terms of the volume of the laser on the satellite and “in terms of weight so that it can be accommodated in the existing satellites with the necessary power”, emphasized Mr. Christodoulos Protopapas. The technological leap with this satellite brings a leap in speed but also in safety since for the first time in Space there will be a backup satellite telecommunications technology. “The main difference between this satellite payload and the ones we’ve done in the past is that it uses light instead of microwaves to carry the information, and the laser is much more capable of carrying information than microwaves. It gives us the opportunity to have very high data rates compared to what was done before. We also have directionality – you want to have your partners in direct view so no one else can “see” your security information – while we also use lasers to distribute quantum keys. We “build” inside the satellites quantum keys and use lasers to transmit them to the users. Quantum keys can ensure that two people communicate securely since they are inherently unpredictable. They are… inseparable!”, stressed Mr. Laborde.

The use of lasers together with quantum keys is the additional revolution of the design. “Knowing the geopolitical conditions that currently exist in our region, in the event that there is any interruption of the communication connection between Greece and any other part of the world – which can be seen by someone from 39° – we can restore these telecommunications by pointing these laser beams, one at Greece and the other from where we want Greece to communicate with a communications speed of one terabit of telecommunications” explained Mr. Protopapas. For his part, Mr. Laborde also described that another option could be the eventual connection of Hellas Sat 5 via laser with a future Low Orbit (LEO) satellite, so that there would be networks in the sky. “I estimate that Hellas Sat will possibly be able to cooperate with another operator and share data transmission actions. That is, what is happening today on the ground since when we exchange data, the internet providers cooperate and our data passes between different providers…” explained the French expert.

With the historic agreement, the launch plan of the new Hellas Sat 5 with laser communication technology has been set at the end of 2027 until the beginning of 2028 according to Mr. Protopapas and Ms. Metenier.