Airborne Laser Optical Link Demonstrator

TECH SPACE

illustration only

Bonn - Dec 09, 2003
EADS Astrium has been awarded a contract by the French MoD Procurement Agency ďż˝ Telecommunication and Observation Programs Dept for the demonstration of an optical link between an airborne carrier representative of the future medium- and high-altitude UAVs (MALE and HALE) and the Artemis geo-stationary satellite from ESA by 2006. EADS Astrium is prime on this programme valued at around 50 M euro on which Alcatel Space and ONERA participate as sub-contractors.

The demonstrator is called LOLA (Liaison Optique Laser Aďż˝roportďż˝e). It will be used to characterize the propagation of light beams in the atmosphere and to validate the system performance capabilities of the link.

The link will be used for secure transmission of information received from UAVs by operation centres a few thousand kilometres away, within about one second and at very high data rates (50 Mbits/s with Artemis, and eventually several hundred megabits/s).

This high capacity datastream will considerably reduce the time needed to transmit information from the theatre of operation, will improve control of information and will bring significant operational advantages.

Following the success of the first ever laser transmissions, using the SILEX link, between the civilian, earth observation satellite SPOT4 from CNES and the Artemis telecommunication satellite, this contract clearly shows the relevance of optical links for dual or defence applications. It also validates EADS Astrium expertise in the sphere of optical links for telecommunications applications.

TECH SPACE

NEC Develops World's Smallest Transistor

Tokyo (AFP) - Dec 09, 2003
Japan's computer giant NEC Corp. has developed the world's smallest transistor in a breakthrough which could lead to the production of a supercomputer the size of a desktop PC, a report said.

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