Earlier this month, the Institute of Communications and Navigation of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) inaugurated a ground station at its Oberpfaffenhofen site to test optical satellite links.
“In the future, it will become increasingly important to efficiently network satellites with each other and to exchange data securely and efficiently with the ground,” says Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla, Chair of the DLR Executive Board. “This is driven by the ever-increasing data volumes involved in communications, navigation and Earth observation activities, as well as by the increasingly scarcity of radiocommunications licences.”
The newly expanded ground station in Oberpfaffenhofen will make it possible to test and further develop its numerous applications, including satellite-based quantum communication solutions.
The centrepiece of the new optical ground station is a new telescope with a diameter of 80 centimetres. The telescope is a Coudé focus telescope, in which the light collected by the telescope is guided via mirrors directly into a laboratory.
