Optical Technologies for Connectivity and Secure Communications

The European Space Agency (ESA) has systematically supported European / Canadian industries (more than 30 years) in developing cutting-edge optical technologies for optical communications and quantum communications. ESA created in 2016 the dedicated ScyLight Strategic Programme Line (part of the ESA Telecommunications ARTES programme) to focalize these efforts. Besides the research and development of optical and quantum communication technologies, ScyLight funds flight opportunities for their in-orbit verification. In this respect, the two main initiatives are “High thRoughput Optical Network” (HydRON) and “Security And cryptographic” (SAGA) projects, which respectively paves the way towards the first terabit/sec capacity optical satellite network and contributes to the creation of a highly secure pan-European quantum communication infrastructure.