Sony Builds Satellite That Can Communicate With Laser, Space Business Is Getting Crazier

JAKARTA - Sony on Thursday, June 2 announced that it has formed a new company that will build and supply devices that allow tiny satellites in orbit to communicate with each other via laser beams. This marks Sony's foray into the rapidly growing aerospace sector.

Sony Space Communications Corp., registered on Wednesday, June 1, is intended to utilize laser technology to avoid radio frequency jamming. The device will work between the satellite in space and the satellite that communicates with the ground station.

Sony did not say when it expects its first commercial device to operate in space. They don't even say whether they already have customers or how much money has been invested in the technology to date.

There are about 12.000 satellites in Earth orbit during this time, a number that is projected to increase rapidly in the coming years as rocket companies cut costs for launching into space. Moreover, companies like Amazon and SpaceX are building large networks of earth satellites to carry internet communications around the world.

"The amount of data used in orbit is also increasing year on year, but the number of radio waves available is limited," the new company's president, Kyohei Iwamoto, said in a statement.

SpaceX makes its own laser communications device and first launched it on the Starlink satellite late last year.

Sony says one of its first successful tests occurred in 2020 when it transmitted high-definition image data with a laser from the International Space Station to an earth station in Japan.