Kepler companions up for ESA’s optical information relay constellation

TAMPA, Fla. — Kepler Communications, a Canadian small satellite tv for pc operator, is teaming up with Europe’s Airbus Defence and Area and its impartial laser terminal subsidiary Tesat-Spacecom to develop an optical relay community in low Earth orbit (LEO).

The Canadian firm is main the group to assist bid for a better function within the European Area Company’s Excessive Throughput Optical Community (HydRON) program. 

First introduced to Europe’s Ministerial Council in November 2019, HydRON envisages a multi-orbit, terabit-per-second transport community for extending the attain of fiber networks on the bottom.

Beforehand, Kepler was a subcontractor inside two competing teams that received early ESA examine contracts in 2022 for a multi-orbit HydRON demonstration mission: one led by Airbus and one other led by Thales Alenia Area.

These research ran in parallel to have a look at the feasibility of laser communication payloads in LEO and geostationary orbit (GEO) that might join with one another, a number of optical floor stations and terrestrial fiber networks.

Mina Mitry, Kepler’s CEO, mentioned the brand new consortium is engaged on proposals for succeeding phases of the HydRON program which might be centered on creating its LEO, floor and networking components. 

These phases cowl subsequent steps for outlining and additional creating a possible HydRON demonstration mission and are presently out for tender.

ESA spokesperson Christopher Vasko mentioned the company plans to award contracts for the subsequent part of HydRON earlier than the tip of summer season.

“If all goes properly, this implies first satellites in orbit by 2026 and going operational earlier than finish 2027,” he mentioned.

ESA can also be anticipated to launch future tenders to cowl extra orbital regimes, which Mitry mentioned could be suitable with the undisclosed variety of LEO satellites his group is planning.

Within the new consortium, Kepler plans to leverage expertise it’s already creating for its personal LEO optical information relay community. The operator presently has 21 satellites in a sun-synchronous fleet that present low-data-rate connectivity for gadgets out of vary of terrestrial networks. 

Kepler’s proposed LEO information relay community could be positioned alongside two near-orthogonal planes in sun-synchronous orbits to allow steady communications with LEO satellites.

In keeping with Kepler, the info relay community would supply real-time connectivity for LEO satellites, which might in any other case solely relay data when passing over authorized floor stations.

The corporate launched its first two optical pathfinder satellites in late 2023 and has beforehand outlined plans for 140 satellites in complete. It expects to begin offering information relay companies to industrial and authorities clients subsequent yr.

“It was discovered that Kepler’s industrial plans and Company Aims have been properly aligned, so both sides is being leveraged to enhance the opposite,” Mitry advised SpaceNews through e-mail.

For the consortium, Kepler’s optical communications contribution consists of constellation design and operation.

Airbus is offering community methods engineering and a floor section that would come with optical stations. Tesat is answerable for laser communication terminals and spaceborne networking gear.

Thales Alenia Area is responding to the newest HydRON tender by means of its Italian subsidiary, in keeping with a spokesperson for the corporate, which is main a separate consortium of corporations which have but to be introduced.

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