G&H Spotlights its Expanding Space Heritage Technology at ICSO 2024

Paris, France – October 2024

G&H, a world leader in photonic engineering and manufacturing, will be present at the 2024 International Conference on Space Optics (ICSO) with its latest photonic and optics product lines including fiber-optics, acousto-optics and optical systems for communication, navigation and imaging in space. Particularly, the development and deployment of specialized fiber optics components in harsh environments comes as a direct answer to the growing demand for high-reliability technologies embedded in space applications.

This year, the company will be highlighting its fiber components and systems for Earth observation, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), and Satellite Laser Communication capabilities used in all major European, American and, more recently, in Japanese Intersatellite Links (ISLs), as reported by JAXA with the announcement of their LUCAS system success. In addition to low Earth orbit (LEO) to geostationary orbit (GEO) ISLs, G&H also offers miniaturized systems for direct downlinks. This space-grade solution includes the G&H record-breaking CubeSat-compatible gigabit transmitter, which is part of the SmallCAT laser terminal currently on board the Norwegian NorSat-TD.

On the R&D front, G&H will address the next data bottleneck in space-based communications: the performance of optical feeder links that would interconnect the space networks to terrestrial links. The most commonly met challenges include optical transmitter and receiver misalignments, atmospheric influences and spectrum issues. The development efforts at G&H are being concentrated on a critical part of the transmission channel, namely the High Power Optical Amplifier (HPOA), a solution that started as part of the European project “VERTIGO” and increases Technology Readiness Level (TRL) as part of the European Space Agency “EPOS” project underpinning groundbreaking ~100W-class amplifier systems.

“We are literally reaching new frontiers through our G&H-powered space capabilities, which I am very excited to be talking more about during this year’s ICSO,” comments Sebastien Lenoir, Sales Director for Southern Europe at G&H. “Our company has historically been a part of many firsts in commercial space exploration, pushing known boundaries regarding materials and design through our collaborations with esteemed space institutions and businesses from around the world. For example, our work with the TNO consortium in the Netherlands has helped achieve the milestone of secure and fast data transfer between satellite and ground station using laser-amplified signals, a first for the group and a first in the world in terms of size and achieved speeds. In Japan, with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the NEC Corporation, we have recently confirmed an inter-satellite return link of 1.8 gigabits per second via the LUCAS (Laser Utilising Communication System) hardware which contains G&H photonics technology. I will also remind conference participants that G&H is on Mars – through the G&H acousto-optic tunable filter aboard the Mars Perseverance rover. These are just a few of the success stories our engineering teams are collecting through their intensive, focused work on space technology that I will be sharing with the delegates at this year’s ICSO conference.”