French military funds orbital test of Cailabs optical terminal to remove atmospheric turbulence w/o adaptive optics

by Peter B. de Selding

PARIS — The French Defense Innovation Agency (DIA) is financing an orbital test of a technology to correct for atmospheric disturbance of space-to-ground optical transmissions without the use of adaptive optics.

A preliminary version of the TILBA-ATMO optical terminal, designed by Cailabs of France, was tested by the German Aerospace Center, DLR, and was judged equal to adaptive optics in low- and mid-range atmospheric turbulence, and superior in high-turbulence conditions.

But this version did not include optical recombination.

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