MOSCOW, August 26. /TASS/. The Russian tech company Avant Space has obtained a patent on a laser communication method to transmit data from space to Earth using the principle of QR codes, the company told TASS on Thursday.
"The company Avant Space has taken out a patent from the Federal Intellectual Property Service for the technology of transmitting data from outer space by the method of laser flickering," the company said.
The technology will operate using the QR code principle, it specified. "The bottom line is that laser flickering allows transmitting a binary code. Thus, by pointing a phone at a spacecraft, demonstrating advertising from orbit, a user will be able to get information in the form of a text or a link," the company explained.
Avant Space Head Anton Ossovsky pointed out that the technology could be used for public awareness campaigns. "Our solution …can be scaled up on various platforms, including for public emergency awareness, assistance in emergencies and other situations. I am confident that the technology’s export potential will capture attention already in the immediate future," he added.
Head of the United Space and Rocket Corporation’s Project Department Andrei Divayev told TASS in February that the first two microsatellites with laser diodes intended to write messages in the sky would be sent into orbit in 2022. The microsatellites would be controlled in a swarm of satellites that would be orbited under the Sozvezdiye (Constellation) experiment, he specified.
Avant Space informed TASS in September last year that a laser assembly for spacecraft capable of displaying advertisements from outer space, had successfully passed stratospheric tests. As the company emphasized, the spacecraft’s luminescence would not create problems for astronomers as the lasers mounted on satellites would only be turned on when passing above large cities of the planet.