- Greenland’s Arctic location makes it a key hub for low Earth orbit satellite communications
- Laser comms offer faster data transfer and stronger resistance to jamming than radio
- Astrolight is building optical ground stations to support civil, commercial, and military networks
Greenland has been in the headlines a lot recently, after President Donald Trump renewed calls for the United States to take control of the territory – but beyond politics, the Arctic region is also garnering attention for a very different reason – its growing importance to space and defense communications.
This strategic value is closely tied to satellites, lasers, and geography, and according to European laser communications startup Astrolight, Greenland’s location near the North Pole makes it unusually valuable for modern satellite networks.
Speaking to AZoOptics, Laurynas Maciulis, co founder and CEO of Astrolight, said Greenland plays a key role in how Low Earth Orbit satellites (LEO) move around the planet.
Military use
“Greenland is strategically valuable for LEO pass geometry because its proximity to the North Pole allows frequent satellite passes for polar orbiting satellites that provide global coverage,” he explained, adding that its position near the magnetic pole also makes it useful for monitoring space weather.
Astrolight focuses on laser based communications, which use tightly focused beams of light instead of traditional radio signals. This offers several practical advantages over radio frequency systems.
“Laser communication solves many practical problems that come with the use of radio frequency,” Maciulis said. “It sidesteps the crowded radio frequency spectrum,” while also allowing much higher data rates and offering strong resistance to jamming and spoofing.
The company has already moved beyond testing. Maciulis said Astrolight recently signed a contract with the European Space Agency to build the first optical ground station (OGS) in Greenland, aimed at speeding up the return of satellite data for uses such as disaster response and geointelligence.
Laser communications are also attracting attention in military settings, where radio transmissions can expose the location of troops.
In a separate report by BFBS Forces News, Peter Stensgård-Hansen of Astrolight described his own experience using radios during military service.
“I died so many times during my nine months of service because the moment I pushed that radio down it’s a big ‘hello, here is battalion command’. I was bombarded to pieces.”
Laser links are far harder to detect or disrupt. “This is just free space, a very narrow beam that only transmits from a very narrow path from the transmitter to the receiver,” Stensgård-Hansen said.
Nato has been testing laser based systems during recent exercises as part of efforts to improve communications resilience.
“The idea of establishing a position in Greenland came from our experience with Nato… we need to spread out our global space infrastructure,” Stensgård-Hansen said.
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