Mbryonics has been tapped for the final leg of an ESA space communication project.

Galway space-tech Mbryonics is building out a second manufacturing facility in Shannon to keep up with a growing demand for its services.

The new 40,000 sq ft facility called Photon-2 will produce thousands of optical terminals by 2027, the company said.

Mbryonics specialises in tools for space-based communication, having risen to become one of Ireland’s most notable space-techs in the 12 years since its founding.

Last September, the company opened the Photon-1 production facility in Dangan, Galway, and announced 125 new jobs to be created by 2027.

The latest expansion comes as Mbryonics continues its work with the European Space Agency (ESA) on communication-related projects – the most recent being the ‘High-throughput Digital and Optical Network’ (Hydron), which is building an advanced laser-based satellite system to extend fibre-based internet into space.

The project is divided into phases – or ‘elements’ – with the first establishing a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit, the second extending this capability into higher orbits, and the third to bring industry into the network to validate the technology.

After a successful contribution to the second part of this project, Mbyronics was tapped for the final leg, in collaboration with Kepler Communications.

Specifically, the company’s optical terminal and its ground station testbed have been selected to demonstrate full interoperability with other optical terminal providers during the in-orbit demonstrations and to also verify on-ground interoperability verification.

“Hydron will serve as the world’s first multi-orbital optical communications network with a terabit per second capacity, offering resilient and efficient data transfer to address the challenges of bringing connectivity to multiple users securely, quickly and reliably,” said Laurent Jaffart, the director of resilience, navigation and connectivity at ESA.

John Mackey, the CEO of Mbryonics, added: “The internet was built by making different networks talk to each other, and that’s exactly what we’re enabling in space.

“Just as we demonstrated in DARPA Space BACN, this ESA award allows us to showcase how our laser communication technologies enable satellites from different providers to communicate seamlessly in orbit.

“We are delighted to partner with Kepler, and other ecosystem providers, on this strategic engagement with the European Space Agency.”

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