Our recent coverage of commercial space has included DoD efforts to leverage the commercial space internet as “future military operations will be multi-domain and will be conducted with unprecedented speed.”  Experimental DoD efforts are focused on building a “robust systems architecture ecosystem with the growth of exponential technologies like AI in mind”, which will be crucial to leveraging space-based commercial internet capabilities.

The Defense Intelligence Agency also recently updated the Challenges to Security in Space 2022.  This second edition expands on the insights of the first publication in 2019 and provides an “unclassified overview of the threats to U.S. space capabilities, particularly from China and Russia, as those threats continue to expand.” (1)

In light of the cyber attacks on the Ukrainian satellite system (which figured prominently in the early stages of the Ukraine conflict) we also highlighted Space Security and Offensive and Defensive Counterspace Capabilities.   At the time of the attacks, we provided general coverage  – With Viasat Satellite Hack Officially Attributed to Russia by US and EU Allies, What Next for Satellite Security? – as well as OODA CTO Bob Gourley’s and OODA Loop contributor Emilio Iasiello’s valuable insights and recommendations:

• A No Hype Assessment On Starlink Security In Combat Environments: There are risks and mitigation measures by Bob Gourley
• Cyber Attack Against Satellite Calls into Question Satellite Security by Emilio Iasiello

In a legacy analysis from the OODA Loop archive, OODA Contributor Cindy Martinez foreshadowed some of the core issues in her Mitigating Threats to Commercial Space Satellites.

Clearly, space continues to be an active, contested space, with a hybrid of governmental and commercial activities already in play.  We now turn to NASA, Chinese and commercial development efforts  – and the future role of laser satellite links in the space communications infrastructure.

Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD)

NASA’s version of Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) development is the LCRD mission, with the following working definition of the technology:

“The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) aims to showcase the unique capabilities of optical communications. Currently, most NASA missions use radio frequency communications to send data to and from spacecraft. Radio waves have been used in space communications since the beginning of space exploration and have a proven track record of success. However, as space missions generate and collect more data, the need for enhanced communications capabilities becomes paramount.

Optical communications are one of these enhancements and will provide significant benefits for missions, including bandwidth increases of 10 to 100 times more than radio frequency systems. Additionally, optical communications provide decreased size, weight, and power requirements. A smaller size means more room for science instruments. Less weight means a less expensive launch. Less power means less drain on the spacecraft’s batteries. With optical communications supplementing radio, missions will have unparalleled communications capabilities.” (2)

According to Payload.com,  an LCRD NASA mission was sent to orbit in December 2021.  Details of the mission include:

• “The mission objective: To test optical laser communications. The technology could be the answer to speed, quantity, and lag issues with getting information back from space.
• Lasers can be 10-100x faster than the radio communications currently in use on the International Space Station (ISS) and other NASA missions, helping to meet the growing demand for space-gathered data.
• Radio frequencies used for space communications are already in high demand. With lasers, operators don’t have to worry about other satellites interfering with your frequencies.
• LCRD will operate for at least the next two years, demonstrating for NASA how laser communications function in varying weather conditions in a realistic environment.”  (3)
• Unlike radio frequency communications, optical signals cannot penetrate cloud coverage, so NASA must build a system flexible enough to avoid interruptions due to weather. LCRD will transmit data received from missions to two ground stations, located in Table Mountain, California, and Haleakalā, Hawaii. These locations were chosen for their minimal cloud coverage. LCRD will test different cloud coverage scenarios, gathering valuable information about the flexibility of optical communications. (2)

China’s Laser Communications Trials and the BeiDou constellation

Days before the NASA LCRD mission launch in December 2021, China “conducted a test of the laser-based communications system, which could allow satellites to beam several gigabytes of data per second to Earth’s surface, rather than the rather than smaller kilobytes per second of information they can currently handle.

China tested the laser-communications system between satellites in its GPS-equivalent BeiDou satellite navigation system and ground stations on Earth. The South China Morning Post did not specify when exactly China’s laser communications test took place but reported the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced on Friday that the test proved BeiDou’s laser signals could transmit information effectively, even to challenging environments like crowded cities.”  (4)

SpaceX to Outfit New Starlink Satellites with Laser Communications Capabilities

Back in August 2021 at the Space Symposium in Colorado, “inter-satellite links are the future of satellite data transmission. This was one point that leaders across the space and satellite value chain could agree on…SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell said that every Starlink satellite that is launched in the future will be equipped with laser terminals, starting with the next launch in [2021].

‘We’re flying a number of laser terminals right now in space, and we’re working on probably our third generation now,’ Shotwell said. ‘In fact, that’s why we haven’t flown Starlink for weeks, because we wanted the next set to have the laser terminals on them.’  In January [2021], SpaceX Founder Elon Musk confirmed that SpaceX was targeting inter-satellite links for Starlink satellites for 2022, and in January, SpaceX launched 10 Starlinks with inter-satellite links to Polar Orbit.

Shotwell also commented on the economics of the laser terminals: ‘It is [expensive], although … our terminals are far less expensive than those that we surveyed. Anything you add to that satellite is expensive, but when you pack 60 of them together and throw them on one reusable launch vehicle, the economics are pretty favorable for us.'” (7)