Space lasers, a futuristic joke, have become a real tool in building technology and making improvements. NASA’s use of space lasers to study plankton and the plans to blast space junk. Amazon’s Project Kuiper has built up its optical inter-satellite links (OISLs) capabilities to create a mesh network of high-speed laser cross-links, resulting in faster data transmission to remote places on earth. Amazon launched two prototype satellites in October and reported successful tests one month later. The satellites dispatched and retrieved data at speeds of up to 100 gigabits per second. The company stated that it demonstrated the ability to establish a single bi-directional link between two satellites. A critical feature of a next-generation mesh network in space. Laser links had to maintain contact at a distance up to 1,616 miles while contending with spacecraft moving at a speed of 15,534 miles per hour. Amazon claims the mesh network moves data about 30 percent faster than terrestrial fiber optic cables can. The company stated that the optical mesh network will provide multiple paths to route data through space. Creating resiliency and redundancy for customers who need to securely transport information around the world. Project Kuiper has seen a real boost in the last few months, and Amazon predicts that early customer pilots will begin in the second half of the year. Amazon signed a deal with SpaceX to launch more Project Kuiper satellites at a faster rate.
Space Lasers Power Amazon’s Satellite Internet Expansion
