Chinese researchers have used a low-powered 2-watt laser from a spacecraft in geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometers above the Earth to successfully send data from space to Earth at an astounding 1Gbps speed, five times faster than Starlink.
Under the direction of Liu Chao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Professor Wu Jian of the Peking University of Posts and Telecommunications, the experiment used a novel technique that combined Mode Diversity Reception (MDR) and Adaptive Optics (AO). Because of their cooperation, the team was able to solve the long-standing problem of atmospheric turbulence, which usually causes laser signals to be scattered into weak, distorted patches when they reach Earth.
