HAPS-to-HAPS optical mesh integration

Demonstrate a reliable HAPS-to-HAPS free-space-optical mesh by resolving pointing, tracking, and handover between two drifting stratospheric endpoints and validating the projected high-availability inter-platform link in flight.

Background

The paper presents inter-platform free-space optical links as a prospective means of connecting HAPS platforms into a continental-scale network. Because both endpoints are above the cloud column and the boundary-layer turbulence, the authors project substantially higher availability than for many ground-to-space optical links.

However, no HAPS-to-HAPS optical link has yet been flown. The unresolved integration challenge is maintaining acquisition, pointing, tracking, and handover between platforms that drift relative to one another in the stratosphere.

References

No HAPS-to-HAPS link has been flown. Pointing, tracking, and handover between two drifting endpoints is an open integration question.

— HAPS through the Lens of Satellites and UAVs: A Function-Level Perspective on the Emerging High Altitude Economy  (2608.16828 - Ahmad et al., 17 Aug 2026) in Section 6.8, “HAPS-to-HAPS FSO Mesh”