Hellas Sat and Thales Alenia Space, a joint-venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on the development of an optical communication payload for the upcoming new mission to be embarked on the future Hellas Sat 5 telecommunications satellite, operating in geostationary orbit at 39 degrees East.
The partnership between Hellas Sat and Thales Alenia Space plans to provide communication services with high data rates from geostationnary orbit. This ambitious payload aims to connect with Optical Ground Station of the National Athens Observatory in Greece, Optical Ground Stations in France, Optical Ground Stations of ESA and Thales Alenia Space’s LEO HydRON telecommunication satellite.
After Vertigo H2020 program, Thales Alenia Space is currently advancing the development of high data rate capacities (up to 1 terabit/second) facing long distances from ground to geostationary orbit and cross-atmospheric turbulence. Support will be from France Relance (CO-OP), CNES (DYSCO) and ESA (HydRON).
The MoU signing ceremony took place at Hellas Sat’s headquarters in Athens, Greece, with representatives from the Prime Minister’s Office, the French embassy in Greece, ESA, CNES, Thales Alenia Space France, Italy and Switzerland, the National Athens Observatory, along with various Greek ministries and local authorities in attendance.
© Thales Alenia Space
Christodoulos Protopapas, CEO of Hellas Sat stated, “We are honored to work once again with Thales Alenia Space in the realm of optical communication technology, introducing the optical connectivity communication services to the European and International market thus effectively achieving the implementation of new technologies and sealing a new era.”
“We are thrilled to collaborate with Hellas Sat and all our partners to develop optical communications payload, a crucial step towards establishing a secure and very high data rate optical network. This marks the beginning of a new era in telecommunication services with a sustainable approach.” added Marc-Henri Serre, Executive Vice President Telecommunications at Thales Alenia Space.
“Undoubtedly, this is a big step towards technological progress, which in fact strengthens the cooperation between Greece and France. The Hellas Sat 5 satellite which is to be constructed will provide us with new possibilities in fields such as early forecasting and the collection of scientific data” concluded the Minister for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Mr. Vassilis Kikilias.
Free Space Optical laser Communications is emerging as a space standard, offering significantly greater capacities compared to current satcom systems (terabit/sec vs. gigabit/sec). This technology is poised to revolutionize space telecommunication infrastructure, similar to the impact of optical fiber on the ground.
ESA HydRON and CNES DYSCO projects target high throughput optical space links R&D and demonstrations, addressing challenges in providing connectivity to multiple users across different orbits, ground assets and applications. The system showcases the capabilities of the optical communication technology in end-to-end system implementations.
Various use cases include universal internet access, direct data transmission from observation satellites at any time, private links to data center and optical fiber redundancy on the ground in case of crises.
Introducing optical fiber in space is expected to reduce the need for a high number of satellites in orbit, contributing to the sustainability of space infrastructure and minimizing sky pollution.