Nichols Martin
Airbus has connected 10,000 lasers in a satellite network made to facilitate large amounts of observation data.
The SpaceDataHighway system collects data from low-orbit satellites and transmits at a speed of 1.8 gigabits per second with a total relay of 40 terabytes daily, the company said Friday.
The system’s Munich-based mission operation center conducts satellite activities 24 hours a day to address customer requests, oversee communications and program the space and ground segment.
Airbus manages the system in cooperation with the European Space Agency in support of the European Union’s Copernicus program, which aims to grant earth observation capacities for the continent. The system will be used to relay information from the International Space Station‘s Columbus module in 2019 and will operate with the Pleiades Neo satellites beginning 2020.
