A new “laser” project launched in Western Australia could revolutionise global communications. Two optical ground stations in a strategically positioned network have successfully received laser signals from a German satellite, paving the way for a staggering 1,000-fold increase in space-to-Earth communications bandwidth, researchers say.

The TeraNet initiative is led by astrophotonics scientist Sasha Shedivi from the University of Western Australia (WA) and funded by the Australian Space Agency’s Moon to Mars Demonstration Mission.

“The overall aim of the project is to contribute to Australia’s vision for next-generation space exploration,” Shedivi told ScienceAlert.

Satellites have been communicating using radio waves since the launch of Spuntik I in 1957. Their low-frequency signals limit their ability to transmit data, and after almost 70 years of development, radio wave communication cannot meet the enormous demand for data transmission.

“This has been pushed to the absolute extreme, but it has now really reached a bottleneck,” Shedivi said.

With thousands of satellites orbiting the Earth, vast amounts of data are being collected to be sent back. High-frequency laser communication could be the solution.

“By switching to infrared laser beams for communications, we get 100 or 1,000 times more bandwidth,” Shedivi said.

Among its many potential applications, researchers hope this powerful satellite communications system will help people feel more connected to space exploration than ever before.

“We could have multiple camera angles and 4K video of the next moon landing,” Shedivi said. “I think that’s a really exciting aspect of the technology.”

Traditional radio communications tend to have a wide broadcast range, which can cause overlap and interference between radio signals. The shortwave signals used by TeraNet will be more focused.

“Instead of your beam being 100 kilometers, you can use optical signals [62 милі] can be 100 meters in diameter [328 футів] versus. So you’re really targeting an individual user on the ground,” Shedivi said.

It may seem surprising that optical communication has not become more widespread, despite these obvious advantages. However, there is a downside to these laser-powered systems.

Unlike their radio wave counterparts, targeted shortwave signals are susceptible to interference. Lasers easily interfere with clouds, making them an unreliable option for satellite communications.

The team has a surprisingly simple solution. The system would have ground stations around Washington connected to the same network, so hopefully at least one station would always have a clear connection to the satellite.

“If it’s cloudy in Perth, the satellite can upload its data to Mingnew, 300 kilometres away [186 миль] north,” Shedivi said.

If both the Perth and Mingenew stations are blocked by the cloud, the TeraNet program has one last trump card left: an additional ground station receiver that mounts on the back of the jeep and can be directed to the coordinates needed to receive the best signal.

If this initial network of three stations proves successful, the team is already working with other organisations on the east coast of Australia and in New Zealand to create a network of Australian optical ground stations, and this is just the beginning.

“WA is ideally placed geographically to be part of the global communications infrastructure, controlling much of the Indian Ocean and having access to Southeast Asia and the polar region,” Shedivi told ScienceAlert.

Once established, the global optical communications network will provide continuous, ultra-fast downloads of satellite data. This could transform situations that require the rapid exchange of large amounts of data, such as disaster response.

There may only be three ground stations at present, but they could potentially herald a new era of space-based communications.

“This demonstration is a critical first step,” Shedivi says.