For this new edition of the International Conference on Space Optics (ICSO), organized by European Space Agency (ESA), nothing has been left to chance. Plenary, technical and poster sessions were perfectly intertwined with several networking events, much appreciated by the space optics community after more than two years of online events.

The conference started with a reminder of the benefits of space optics: optical instruments are key-enablers for Earth sciences (e.g. by monitoring climate change and prevent disasters), space sciences (e.g. the well-known James Webb Space Telescope, JWST), and optical communications. Most plenary sessions presented recent advances in those topics, along with the research conducted by NASA, ESA, JAXA, as well as in China and Africa.

Technical sessions about optical communications gave a broad overview of the required technologies and the open research questions to tackle in order to achieve a full network of space optical communications: past and future demonstrators were presented, the topic of quantum key distribution (QKD) was investigated, devices enabling optical communication were introduced, and key atmospheric propagation challenges were discussed. Most of these topics will be presented in future posts.

Finally, one should not forget the importance of industrial partners for ensuring an economically viable network of space optical communiation. Their large presence during the conference clearly hints that the technology is becoming more and more mature, and ready for the future of optical communication.

More details about the conference can be found on its official website: https://atpi.eventsair.com/icso2022/.