02/07/2025
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Optical technology has the potential to revolutionize the field of positioning, navigation and calendar. To stimulate the development of this technology, ESA has signed a contract with a consortium of European companies which will lead a definition study (phase A / B1) and predevelopment of associated critical technologies.
This is the first step towards a potential orbit demonstrator for synchronization and the variety of optical time (OPSTAR) which will be offered to the ESA Council at the ministerial level in November 2025, to validate the intersatellite optical links before a Future use in operational satellite navigation systems.
Europe is a leading player in the landscape of satellite navigation today. To lay the foundations of tomorrow, the European Space Agency (ESA) explores, matches and validates new technologies and system concepts through various programs, including Futurenav. At his heart, the orbit demonstrator element which serves as a continuous incubator for positioning, navigation and synchronization technologies (PNT) based on space, helping to maintain and stimulate European leadership in this area of more and more strategic.
Promising technology for unprecedented precision and robustness in navigation is optical technology. Optical links, which transmit data using laser beams instead of radio signals, are already well established in the field of satellite communications. To be used in navigation, they always require technological progress and orbit validation of the end -to -end system concept.
ESA aims to develop and test optical technology for temporal synchronization and task. To this end, the agency has signed a contract with a consortium led by the German OHB system as a privileged industry to conduct a concept definition study (A / B1 phase study) and technological predevelopment. The European consortium involves 33 companies from all ESA member states.
After this study, the next step would be to develop and test orbit technology in order to validate new system concepts and explore new architectures. The results will assess the preparation of optical technology and provide essential inputs to decision -makers with regard to incorporating it into future operational systems.
Javier Benedicto, Director of ESA navigation: “We are delighted to launch this project now, while we are preparing for the ESA council at ministerial level in November, a crucial step to demonstrate the advantages of new technologies and shape the future of navigation in Europe. “
José ángel Ávila Rodríguez, responsible for future ESA navigation programs: “In addition to laying the foundations for a future demonstration in orbit, Opstar will help define an international interoperability standard for the optical moment and the beach in PNT. By involving the main players in the industry at this early stage, we allow European industry to continue directing the global PNT and benefit from potential implementation in future operational systems that use this technology. »»
Why optical technology for navigation
While the demand for positioning, navigation and synchronization continues to grow, there is a growing need for robustness, resilience and precision. Optical technology, in particular intersatellite optical links, offers the basis of an almost entirely autonomous global navigation system (GNSS).
The use of laser beams has the potential to provide additional resilience and robustness to the system level, reducing dependence on atomic clocks of space and the ground segment. Optical links are also protected from jamming and usurpation by nature.
Thanks to high data transfer rates, intersatellite optical links also have the potential to activate new more robust architectures, by supporting a multilayer approach to navigation systems, in accordance with the vision of the vision of ESA Leo-Pnt Program.
In addition, the higher accuracy offered by optical systems should improve the performance of current navigation systems in order of magnitude – by reducing spatial precision at the millimeter and a calendar at the Picosecon level.
About ESA navigation
ESA navigation leads the design, development, qualification and R&D of world class programs Galileo and Egnos, and shapes the future of satellite navigation with the ESA Navisp, Futurenav and Moonlight programs, focused on innovation, Competitiveness and orbit demonstrations.