BridgeSat-ICEYE Agreement: Fast Communications for the SAR Micro-sattelites.
Finnish ICEYE company, the speciality of which is focused around acquisition of radar imagery of the Earth’s surface, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the BridgeSat entity. Thanks to the agreement the Finnish satellites are going to be coupled with effective tools that would facilitate optical communications involving lasers.
ICEYE is creating the first commercial constelation of micro-class EO satellites fitted with synthetic aperture radars. Thanks to the agreement signed by and between ICEYE and BridgeSat, the future Finnish satellites will be fitted with laser communication terminals weighing less than 2 kilograms, also known as CLCT (Compact Laser Comms Terminals).
Alongside the hardware, BridgeSat is going to render services for its customer that would allow to transfer the data from the LEO satellites to the Earth at a bandwidth of up to 10 Gb per second. BridgeSat would also deal with the ground reception segment synchronized with the SAR satellites.
Barry Matsumory claimed that pioneers are looking for other pioneers to change the world. The BridgeSat’s CEO said that the company is the first one to commercialize freely accessible optical comms based on lasers and the related ground services, that are a perfect match for ICEYE - the first commercial SAR microsatellites constellation.
The low-cost BridgeSat terminals and the related ground services provide companies and governmental entities with a faster and cheaper alternative solution, when compared to traditional systems that make use of radiowaves for the sake of transmitting the data. The laser optical communications may be used both in case of LEO, as well as in case of GEO missions.
“Compact, rapid and cheap space communication terminals and ground services rendered by BridgeSat play a key role in our effort to reach the goal: democratisation of access to the EO data”, Rafał Modrzewski, ICEYE CEO stated.