Access to the 'SpaceDataHighway'

"The 'Columbus Ka-Band Terminal' has commenced service."The volume of scientific data generated by the experiments on the International Space Station is continuously increasing.

ColKa gives the Columbus laboratory on the ISS its own direct access to the SpaceDataHighway.

The high-speed satellite link will significantly accelerate 'data traffic' to Europe.

"Many scientists will benefit from this with their experiments - during Matthias Maurer's 'Cosmic Kiss' mission and Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti's mission, following immediately after," explains Volker Schmid, 'Cosmic Kiss' Mission Manager for the German Space Agency at DLR. This antenna, which is about the size of a refrigerator, now makes real-time data transfer possible between the ISS and the Columbus Control Centre at the DLR site in Oberpfaffenhofen, from where the ColKa terminal is operated.

"Following the successful installation, we carried out numerous tests from the Columbus Control Centre. We checked, for example, whether the antenna aligned correctly according to our commands, whether communication with the data network was working properly and whether data was being transmitted successfully," explains Daria Margiotta, a Flight Director at the Columbus Control Centre.

A 'highway in space' for fast data traffic How does the data transfer work? At 36,000 kilometres above Earth, geostationary communications satellites always remain above a given point because they orbit at the same rotational speed as Earth.

This enables them to receive large amounts of data from the 'low-flyers' and transmit them to ground stations particularly quickly and, above all, without any interruption.

"ColKa transmits its data to the EDRS-A communications satellite, which then transmits it to the ground station at Harwell in the UK. From there, the data travels via the Interconnection Ground Subnetwork to the Columbus Control Centre in Oberpfaffenhofen and vice versa. In this way, we achieve data transmission rates of 50 megabits per second," explains Margiotta.

Scientists benefit Many scientists will benefit from the link to the data highway, as this will provide them with a more direct access to their experiments.

"ColKa will allow us to receive data from all European racks and payloads much faster than ever before. In the Columbus Control Centre, we therefore keep a very close eye on flawless data traffic, which we coordinate with the other users in Europe. But we are also in permanent contact with NASA because, for example, the antenna cannot be operated during astronauts' extravehicular activities," explains Margiotta.