The following quoted sentence seems to be nonsense...
"...reduce the accuracy you need to aim a signal at the satellite, by using a large photon-collection surface that's already common in space, the satellites' photovoltaic (PV) panels, as the receiver."
You'd only believe this claim if you image that a laser beam aimed from Earth to a satellite arriving at the satellite as a tiny red dot; the system struggling to maintain precise aim on the tiny phototransistor on the satellite.
If you understand real world dispersion of laser beams (small, but vastly non-zero), then you'll understand that the mythical phototransistor is *effectively* the same size as the PV array. Because the beam width of the laser beam is hugely vast in comparison, over such distances.
Especially on a tiny cubesat. Less so on the ISS, where this technique is not applicable anyway.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
