BY NATHAN GUMA
WHEN the Artemis crew left Earth to embark on the farthest manned spaceflight to complete a successful lunar flyby around the moon, that was not the only feat.
According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the crew flew 252,756 miles (406,771km), breaking Apollo 13’s record of 248,655 miles.
However, using O2O technology, which refers to optical-to-optical communication systems, they could transmit crystal clear broadcasts in 4K, despite the distance.
Laser communication uses light beams instead of radio waves to transmit data at a higher speed and capacity.
Experts believe that this could also shape the future of communication for Zimbabwe, which is making inroads into the geospatial community.
The country launched the ZimStat-1 satellite, developed by Zimbabwean engineers in collaboration with Japanese partners and launched from a NASA facility in Virginia, marking a significant milestone for the country’s space ambitions.
Future of Communication is in Space
Neil Padmore, founder and managing director at Frampol, a Starlink authorised reseller, says that the future of communication lies in space.
“That the Artemis II mission flew farther than any other manned craft and still maintained 4K audiovisual data is quite remarkable,” he said during the Artemis II Splashdown event hosted by the United States Embassy in Harare and the Embassy of Canada in Zimbabwe.
“They used a technology O2O to achieve that using laser. Now, the interesting thing is for any of us using low orbit satellite solutions today, it’s exactly what is transpiring between the satellite, being transmitted between the satellites currently.”
This refers to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, positioned closer to Earth for lower latency communications.
Low-orbit communications like Starlink already use laser technologies and have been providing fast and reliable communications, which are faster than those which are broadband-based.
According to data by Speed Test Global Index processed by Insights of the World, Zimbabwe’s broadband speed is 37.28 Mbps, slower than many African countries, highlighting not only infrastructure gaps but also opportunities to expand fibre, competition, and digital growth.
Starlink uses LEO satellites, combining radio links and some laser inter-satellite connections for global broadband delivery.
Padmore says that in the future, more communication infrastructure is going to be located in space than on the ground.
“We were having a good chat earlier, talking about possibly putting a ground station down, putting infrastructure on continents. You know, that’s something that we did years ago. Now that’s being replaced with high-bandwidth inter-satellite laser communication,” he says.
This enables satellites to directly exchange data using lasers, reducing reliance on ground-based relay infrastructure.
“And physics teaches us that light in a vacuum travels 40% faster than light in a fibre optic cable. 40% faster, that’s significant. It’s not a single digit percentage, that’s 40% faster.”
He says this will mean that infrastructure deployment will no longer be necessary as we will be able to achieve hugely scalable delivery of content.
“This means reducing cost and infrastructure barriers to improve equal access to digital communication services.”
“That is also a huge enabler to democratising access to communication. All of that falls away. We can put inter-laser communication between satellites at 40% faster than fibre optics can deliver. We have already achieved much faster, much lower cost deployments,” he says.
“Meaning for our residents, we can achieve much lower high-speed costs in terms of what Orion was able to achieve than any other spacecraft. They delivered 4K. The low orbit solutions are only 400km above the surface of the earth.”
Bridging the Rural-Urban Communication Gap
Isaac Chikwanha, Principal Engineer at the Zimbabwe National Geospatial Agency (Zingsa), says that the country is targeting to have communication satellites which can bridge the urban-rural communication gap.
According to data by Our World in Data, the number of people on the internet in Zimbabwe has increased from 0.1% of the population in 1997 to 32.6% in 2022. However, less than 50% of the population uses the internet despite the increase.
“We are developing our satellites, and I think if maybe some of you follow current affairs, the Minister of Finance touched on communication satellites, I think a month ago, where he said that as a country we need to have communication satellites,” he says.
“They are important, they bring in that divide that exists between those of us who live in the rural areas and underprivileged places, so that they can also get to communicate with the global world.”
Chikwanha said this is an area they are currently exploring to provide low-cost connectivity across the country.
“From what Neil was saying, high-speed internet, from what Neil was saying, is something that is shifting away from undersea cables that we used to know, going all the way to satellite,” he says.
“And very soon, we’re going to have back-holes being created in space, where everything that is being done underground will cease to exist. The data centres that we’re all just prioritising at the moment will cease to be something that we mostly prioritise. Why? Because in space, everything is simple.”
