The European Space Agency (ESA) thinks it can improve the speed at which data is transferred from satellites to Earth six-fold using lasers.

On 29th January, the ESA put Eutelsat 9B into orbit, this telecommunications satellite was equipped with the European Data Relay System (EDRS) which according to The Guardian, weighs just 53kg and is about the size of a microwave oven.

Don’t let the size fool you though. The EDRS module is capable of transmitting and receiving data at up to 1.8Gbps or to put it into better perspective, 1800Mbps.

The satellites that will benefit from this new technology the most would be the ESA Sentinel satellites which are constantly looking towards Earth, gathering data and images before sending them back to Earth.

As we mentioned earlier this transmission of data can take several hours because the satellite many not be in line with the antenna on Earth.

The advantage of an EDRS module is that it orbits higher than the Sentinel satellites meaning it can maintain constant communication with the ground given its huge

The hope is that if an image is needed urgently after a natural disaster, or indeed to see one forming, the EDRS technology could lessen the wait for data and images from hours to minutes.

Bringing EDRS modules to space is – as would be expected – slow going and the second module is only scheduled to go up in 2017.

[Via – The Guardian] [Image – CC by/2.0 Lwp Kommunikáció]