MOSCOW, November 29. /TASS/. TsNIImash, the head research institute of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos, will develop equipment for setting up high-speed communications links between low-orbit satellites and Earth, Roscosmos Executive Director for Long-Term Programs and Science Alexander Bloshenko told TASS on Monday.
"The R&D work dubbed ‘Laser’ is a technological effort in the field of inter-satellite laser communications. The research will make it possible to create equipment for arranging high-speed communications lines between low-orbit space vehicles and for transmitting data to Earth," the Roscosmos official said.
This equipment will actually allow transmitting data in real time, he stressed.
TsNIImash will also make prototypes of standardized small-dimension scalable platforms for serial production under the R&D work ‘Type Series.’ They will make up the basis for space-based communications, optoelectronic and radar surveillance systems, he said.
"The transition to serial production will cut the cost of space equipment and, correspondingly, the cost of final services for consumers," Bloshenko said.
TsNIImash, as the Roscosmos head research institute, will engage in the R&D work on creating prototypes of unified platforms (R&D work ‘Type Series’), a flexible digital payload (R&D work ‘Digit’) and onboard laser communication equipment (R&D work ‘Laser’). This work will be carried out as part of the Sfera project.
The Sfera program was outlined by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his annual Q&A conference on June 7, 2018. The program envisages launching communications and Earth’s remote sensing satellites. A source told TASS in December 2020 that the scope of work for 2021 had been defined. In the fall of this year, Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin said that the Sfera program would embrace five telecoms and five observation satellite clusters.