ESA operates a network of geostationary satellites known as the European Data Relay System (EDRS). These satellites communicate with a constellation of European low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites called Sentinels, which are used for Earth monitoring applications.
The EDRS satellites use radio communication to upload the LEO satellites’ images and other data to terrestrial servers.
The challenge is that the growing amount of information from LEO and geostationary satellites, and from satellite constellations, will mean that the available bandwidth from radio communication links will soon be too low to meet ESA’s data transfer needs.
Read the full article in DPA's August issue