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03 Jul 2025
Jena-based Spaceoptix looking to make 50 units per year in collaboration with Tesat.
Researchers in Germany say that they have developed a lightweight and robust telescope for satellite-based laser links that is suitable for series production.
A team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering (IOF), local spin-off company Spaceoptix, and satellite communications specialist Tesat have been working on the technology, with five of the telescopes already made by Spaceoptix and delivered to Tesat.
Tesat is also working on a European Space Agency (ESA) project called “ScyLight”, short for “Secure and Laser communication technology”, and has developed “SCOT135”, a scalable optical communication terminal specially developed for use in medium earth orbit (MEO) and geostationary earth orbit (GEO).
The SCOT135 system is expected to achieve a bandwidth of up to 100 Gb/s over distances of up to 80,000 km in tandem with the new telescope.
Thermal management
Henrik von Lukowicz, the Fraunhofer IOF project manager responsible for the initial telescope development work, said in a press release from the research organization:
"Our aim was to develop a robust and cost-effective series product. For systems that are to be manufactured in large quantities, every hour of production time is ultimately important.
“We have developed a universally applicable telescope that is both a transmitter and receiver unit.”
If and when they are deployed, the new telescopes must be able to withstand both the environmental stresses encountered in space, and the effects of the relatively high laser powers - up to 50 W - used by satellite communications systems.
“For a space telescope, this is a relatively high amount of power that propagates through the system," explains von Lukowicz. "This leads to heat build-up, which can cause changes to the optics. But of course the performance of the system must not be impaired as a result. Thermal management was therefore a particularly important aspect of our design.”
Other priorities included the ability to make particularly lightweight components suitable for spaceflight, methods enabling robust adjustment of components, and ultrafine structuring of the optics for precise performance.
Flight models delivered
Spaceoptix, a 2020 spin-out from Fraunhofer IOF spin-off, is responsible for manufacturing the telescopes, and says that it should be possible to make 50 units per year.
Frank Burmeister, a former Fraunhofer researcher who now heads up Spaceoptix’ research and development efforts, said: “The industrial series production of highly complex systems requires new ways of thinking. This is precisely where our strength lies: setting new standards and opening up new markets in New Space (sic).”
The first flight models were delivered to Tesat last month, with Frank Heine, the chief developer for laser systems at Tesat, commenting:
“The transmitting and receiving telescope developed in Jena is an important key component for our SCOT135 system. The collaboration with Fraunhofer IOF and Spaceoptix has brought us a big step closer to our goal of becoming a central enabler for European laser communication - not only for near-Earth laser-based satellite networks but also in medium and geostationary orbits.”
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