As it looks to further its work in the medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellite industry after having launched additional O3b mPower satellites to strengthen the platform’s performance, resiliency and reach, SES has revealed it has successfully demonstrated a bi-directional optical communications link between ground and space through its MeoSphere Pathfinder 1 mission.
Making the achievement through collaboration with its space technology partners, SES described the announcement as marking an important milestone in the development of the company’s next-generation MEO network, validating a critical technology that will support future high-capacity, secure and flexible connectivity services.
Targeted for operation by 2030 and designed to significantly boost the company’s MEO network capacity, MeoSphere is described by SES as a flexible, next-generation multi-mission network designed to adapt, scale and evolve with the needs of government and commercial customers around the world. Its design is attributed with allowing SES to expand into emerging applications such as in-space data relay, edge processing in space, and resilient connectivity for critical operations across air, sea, land and space.
Working with K2 Space, SES plans to launch a series of MEO pathfinder missions over the next three years to test and validate the satellite bus and SES payload components in orbit, refine operational concepts, and reduce risk ahead of full-scale deployment. Each mission will carry progressively greater payload complexity, incorporating lessons learned from earlier flights into the development cycle.
Among the key use cases for MeoSphere is mobility in aviation and maritime, for which the system will deliver fibre-equivalent throughput to support passenger connectivity, crew communications and operational systems simultaneously across ocean routes where coverage gaps are not an option. For commercial aviation, SES says MeoSphere’s combination of high throughput and low latency and design will enable SES to offer mobility clients multi-orbit solutions in combination with LEO and GEO.
For telecommunications operators and enterprises, MeoSphere will look to offer a high-performance connectivity layer based on a 5G-NTN network suited to customers seeking path diversity and extended network reach.
The Pathfinder 1 mission used a Mynaric Condor optical terminal onboard. SES designed, developed and operated the optical mission and developed automation software that enabled the demonstration. Thales Alenia Space supported system assembly, integration, testing and operations.
During the demonstration, SES said it had successfully transmitted video messages over a bidirectional optical communications link between Cailabs’ optical ground station in Rennes, France, and an SES payload flying on K2’s Gravitas mission on its Mega-class satellite platform.
The demonstration is said to have demonstrated SES’s ability to design, develop and operate advanced optical communications technologies that will support the evolution of its MeoSphere network. By using optical communications, the company said MeoSphere is expected to enable more flexible, resilient and secure data transport while supporting growing demand for high-capacity connectivity.
“This Pathfinder 1 achievement validates our vertically integrated, iterative approach to developing next-generation space capabilities,” said Carmel Ortiz, senior vice-president of MEO Programs at SES.
“Together with our partners, we have successfully and repeatedly transferred data between space and the ground, demonstrating the performance of optical communications in an operational environment. Each milestone brings us closer to realising the optical architecture that will help power our future MeoSphere network, delivering greater flexibility, security and capacity for our customers’ most demanding connectivity requirements.”
Building on the findings of the initial mission, the Pathfinder 1 team will continue testing to extend link duration, and push link speed and performance. These activities are designed to help inform future Pathfinder missions and advance the development of the optical networking technologies that will underpin SES’s MeoSphere constellation.
