This paper presents the activities performed by TNO in the field of Space Laser Communication Terminals for high-volume low cost applications, and its plans for the further development of the required technologies for space terminals with particular emphasis on highly reliable, high performance, cost effective terminals.

To overcome data rate limitations of RF communication links with satellites, TNO and DLR envision optical free-space communication feeder links for next generation high throughput satellites. This paper provides a feasibility assessment of such links and the technology needed. The main results of the link budget and the turbulence modeling of terabit/s optical links are presented. Based on these parameters, requirements and status of the link-subsystems are discussed, and a roadmap is presented, aimed at achieving terabit per second optical feeder links.