Ball Aerospace to Build First Commercial Laser Satellite System

[bananas]

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2014/09/15/ball-aerospace-build-commercial-laser-satellite-system/

Ball Aerospace to Build First Commercial Laser Satellite System
Posted by Doug Messier on September 15, 2014, at 5:10 am

BOULDER, Colo., September 10, 2014 (Ball Aerospace PR) – Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has been selected by Laser Light™ Communications, LLC (Laser Light™) to be its prime contractor for the first global, all-optical commercial satellite system. As customer demand for bandwidth grows, space-based laser communication provides a new way to move vast amounts of information around the globe efficiently and with greater resiliency.

The Ball Aerospace contract will include a first phase design analysis that will lead to completion of an eight-satellite constellation operating in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO). The complete constellation of up to 12 satellites is expected to deliver 6 terabits of data per second with service speeds of 200 gigabits per second, bi-directionally, or nearly 100 times faster than conventional radio downlinks.

While conventional systems require labor-intensive infrastructure and are vulnerable to potential service disruptions, Laser Light™’s system will deliver equivalent bandwidth connections at lower operating costs, with higher speed and reliability. This new optical system will integrate seamlessly with existing ground service networks, offering multiple downlink locations to eliminate slowdowns from network congestion, outages, or weather interruptions.

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[Zorro]

1. Wonder how they're gonna operate when there's cloud cover