In Spring 2026, the GAOM bench was successfully installed at ESA’s IZN-1 Optical Ground Station in Tenerife. The system has passed its SAT, marking an important milestone in its development journey.

The Ground Adaptive Optics Module (GAOM) is the result of a collaboration between Officina Stellare, Dynamic Optics, and ThinkQuantum in the framework of the ARTES ScyLight activity 6C.014 SL.050 with ESA-ESOC. It is a modular, cost-effective adaptive optics solution designed for Free-Space Optical Communication (FSOC) and Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) applications.
Engineered with a strong focus on flexibility and scalability, GAOM leverages Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components and a highly modular architecture to support a wide range of mission scenarios.

Key highlights:

• Bistatic system design;
• Flexible Nasmyth interface, tested successfully on multiple telescopes from different providers;
• Fully modular transmitter (Tx) system based on a piggyback optical bench.

The GAOM system represents a significant step forward in the evolution of optical ground terminals, making them more flexible, scalable, and ready to support the next generation of optical and quantum communication networks.