In a stunning leap forward for space technology, Chinese scientists have achieved an unprecedented breakthrough in satellite communication, using a laser as weak as a nightlight to outpace the speeds of Starlink. Operating from an altitude of 36,000 kilometers—more than 60 times higher than SpaceX’s Starlink network—this Chinese satellite has demonstrated a level of data transmission far superior to what Starlink can offer, pushing the boundaries of what many thought possible.
An Astonishing Achievement
At the heart of this success is a 2-watt laser, which was able to transmit data at an astounding 1 Gbps. This speed is five times faster than Starlink’s capabilities, which are limited to a few megabits per second despite operating at a lower altitude of around 550 kilometers. According to InterestingEngineering, the laser, though faint as a candle’s glow, managed to push data through Earth’s turbulent atmosphere, overcoming a challenge that has long plagued satellite communications: atmospheric turbulence.
The team behind this achievement, led by Professor Wu Jian from Peking University and Liu Chao from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, developed an innovative method to address the interference caused by atmospheric turbulence. Their solution, known as AO-MDR synergy, combines Adaptive Optics (AO) and Mode Diversity Reception (MDR) to sharpen and stabilize the laser signal, ensuring that even through highly turbulent conditions, the transmission remained clear and reliable.
Conquering Atmospheric Turbulence
One of the primary obstacles in laser-based satellite communications is the atmospheric turbulence that distorts the light, making it difficult to maintain a stable connection. Previous efforts to overcome this challenge involved using either AO or MDR alone, but both methods were insufficient when faced with strong turbulence.
The Chinese team’s innovative approach—AO-MDR synergy—combines these two techniques to correct the distortions while capturing scattered signals. This synergy not only enhances the signal strength but also ensures that data can be transmitted more reliably, even when the laser power is low. Their work marks a major milestone in overcoming one of the most persistent issues in space communication.
A Revolutionary Step in Satellite Communications
The implications of this breakthrough extend beyond simple speed improvements. The successful transmission of data over such a vast distance with minimal signal degradation could pave the way for more efficient and faster global data exchanges. The research team’s work also promises significant improvements in the reliability of satellite communications, which could be transformative for industries relying on real-time data transmission, such as media, telecommunications, and even space exploration.
The technology’s ability to maintain a high-quality signal over 36,000 kilometers—without the need for complex infrastructure on the ground—opens up a new frontier for satellite communications. For instance, HD streaming could see faster speeds and less interruption, making this technology particularly appealing for consumers and industries alike.
A Glimpse Into the Future
This achievement is not just a triumph for China but for the global scientific community. It reinforces China’s growing dominance in space technology, and its potential to lead in the field of satellite communications. By pushing the boundaries of laser communication, this technology could one day enable faster internet, more reliable communications for space missions, and even improved global positioning systems (GPS).
With the continued development of these techniques, satellite-based laser communications could soon surpass traditional radio frequency systems, offering greater bandwidth, faster speeds, and reduced latency. This breakthrough not only demonstrates the potential of Chinese research but also highlights the growing competition in the race to dominate the future of space-based communications.
Oh please — StarLink has 7,777 satellites in orbit — a single satellite test is a joke. But yes, a world-wide Internet is a grave danger to a regime that crushes all communications that does not support their rule.
Musk’s starlink stinks. Messes up low Earth orbit greatly increasing chances of chain reaction collision debris hazard. Messes up astronomy. Super costly all around – too many expensive launches, too expensive for customers. Too weak, inferior signal, “disposable” short life span before burning up. Run by a egomaniac billionaire. Worse than the defective Cybertruck fiasco. A pork barrel US support for a bad system.
Chinese propaganda! If you believe anything coming out of China, you are true fool. Their infrastructure is literally crumbling and they somehow just surpassed everybody in satellite internet technology. Just like they revolutionized the EV industry with junk vehicles. lol, keep rooting for China idiots.
First off the title of this article makes it seem like china shot a starlink satellite down with a laser. Second starlink satellites are soo low not for bandwidth but for latency and the limiting factor of latency for satellite internet is the height. If china’s system is stable enough to watch videos off of it would not be bad for that but browsing the internet it would be. It is the time it takes to start loading a page (constant based on latency) vs the time it takes to finish once it has started (based on the size of the page vs the bandwidth).
The important datapoint right now is, at that altitude what sort of latency is introduced?
Also why did they choose that orbit? Simply a clear lane or was there an engineering reason?
I’m skeptical. Not much info on how this really works. And most important – does it penetrate cloud cover, or is this only going to work with perfectly clear skies? I’ll stick with Starlink for now, thanks.
There is little technical merit to this article, as it is comparing apples and oranges.
The Chinese technology seems to be talking about a GEO platform orbiting at 36,000 km. Meanwhile, Starlink is a LEO platform orbiting at 550 km. So any comparison claimed as “…far superior…” is quite misguided.
Because of the high latency involved with data transmission via a platform at 36,000 km, the network throughput and efficiency for a protocol like TCP drops precipitously. Furthermore, the size of the spot beams used by some of these providers is large – meaning that many many many home subscribers are sharing the same downlink channel. Further congestion. Speak with anyone who has ever used HughesNet, or Pathcom…
Starlink’s uplink/downlink speed varies based on weather conditions, and also the size of the ground antenna in use (standard, high-performance, high-performance G3).
The standards one can easily download at 25-100 Mbps (10 Mbps upload); the high-performance can download at 250 Mbps (40-50 Mbps upload). The high-performance G3 is said to be able to download at nearly 1 Gbps, and upload up to 200 Mbps.
Maybe a 2 Watt laser beaming data up to a GEO satellite is novel and advanced.
I have operated mobile uplink stations for broadcast, and we generally used 40-75 Watts of Ku-band power with a 1.8 meter uplink dish. The power varied based on weather and which satellite we needed to reach. So 2 Watts seems very very paltry…
Starlink’s speed is actually quite good, even in remote areas such as where I live. It’s the low latency that is key, making it such a great service. The author should do more research.
Your use of the word, “Pulverize” in the title suggests physical destruction. This is clearly not the case.
Well, we’ve got china haters who believe everyone rides a bicycle and lives in mud huts. That is 100% untrue. First. China’s per capita output of science is pretty low. But remember there are more than a billion people, and they focus on applications such as this. China has more geniuses than the US just because their population is massive. Much of that talent is wasted because of lack of opportunity. But still… huge population. So is this believable? Absolutely. They are not mud hut people, and the best of them have been getting excellent training all around the world for decades. Second. This is a test. It’s not a commercial product. They can now take this tech and install it on a bunch of lower orbit satellites. This is a demonstration of capability from 365 – it’s just going to work better when launched commercially. Third. It’s science, so anyone can do this. Forget about the “repressive” nature of the CCP or whatever ideology hating you like to foster. It doesn’t matter. This is a science article. Don’t stick your head in the sand.
Laser communication is unreliable. It would be like using Windmills to power a city alone. Starlink is way ahead of the curve, and it’s just a matter of time before it’s the fastest out there. Not to mention the move to create a SpaceCellular service with it. Come on now. China is collapsing on itself.
That lag time is awful compared to starlink. There’s no way you can video call or play any game on that connection.
Geostationary orbit. . . Just say it.
It is a shit design.
Just signaling straight up and back down again is a 600ms lag. God forbid you need to communicate with the other side of the world expect 3000ms delay at least.
This is just more Chinese propaganda, don’t believe a word of it.
China’s going to take over the world America is a third world country useless at everything they do
Anyone who thinks Chinas infrastructure is ‘literally crumbling’ is deluded. Light years ahead of the USA, and probably now beyond a point where the US could catch up, even with massive investment, which is anyway nowhere on the horizon. Lots of things objectionable about PRC, but for authoritarianism, lack of democracy none of the western counties really have a leg to stand on. Certainly not Trump’s America.
You really have to clarify what you mean by faster. This article makes the assertion that 1Gbps is faster than a few Mbps. If you are talking about the time it takes to transmit a certain amount of data in one direction then yes it would be faster. But for bidirectional transmissions like VoIP or online gameplay, latency rather than quantity is what affects overall speed. That is why Starlink’s altitude is so low in order to minimize latency. No matter what you cannot beat the physical limitation of the speed of light and 36,000 km orbit = 120.0ms minimum latency vs 550 km = 1.8ms for Starlink. Ask any gamer if they will play with 120ms latency internet…
In order to compete for Starlink’s market, the Chinese laser should be demonstrated a low earth orbit. The article states that the Chinese are 60x higher, therefore latency is 60x greater, which is intolerable for much of the internet. Also left out is that Starlink uses lasers as well to communicate among the satellites for both bandwidth and high latency by reducing hops through space between source and destination.
@routerguy, Why did they choose a GEOSYNCRONOUS ORBIT of 36,000 km?
At that orbit, the satellite takes 24 hours to orbit, appearing stationary to Earth. It is a very common orbit. There are over 550 active geosync sats, providing major communications, broadcasts, internet, etc.
A laser is a point to point connection–it can only connect to a single ground site. That isn’t a competitor to a system like Starlink that covers a wide area and thousands of users with phased array antennas on the ground to track the satellites. Let us know when they put thousands of lasers on each satellite and independently keep each one pointed at stationary and moving receivers across a broad area.
Numbers are bullcrap. I’ve done 500 Megabits per second easy on Starlink. Half a Gigabit. China can’t track hundreds of endusers with a Laser. impossible.
Please compare apples with apples:
The path through the atmosphere is about equal, whether you sending it from 500km or 36000km – the laser beam does not widen significantly.
However, with 36000km the satellite is almost geostationary, and so the part of atmosphere to cross stays constant and thus adaptable. With 500km Starlink altitude, the atmosphere in the link path is constantly changing and the distortions can not be equally compensated.
The two transmissions are not really comparable!
Pretty like comparing apple to orange. Starlink is low orbit, the chinese laser is geostationary. The requirements for earthstation is very different. Please, you can fool comoners, but not satellite comms expert 🤣🤣🤣
False: “Starlink’s capabilities, which are limited to a few megabits per second ”
Truth: ” Starlink’s capabilities, which are limited to a few HUNDRED megabits per second”
False: Insinuating that being much higher altitude is a good thing
Truth: Its a bad thing because it will increase latency which affects real-time dependant services with delays.
Truth: Musk is a POS.
The end.
So, a laser. A single point of light… in a point to point communication. Vs 2000 simultaneous connections. REAL useful for internet.