The landscape of sub-terahertz (sub-THz, 100GHz - 300GHz) wireless technology evolved drastically over the last two decades - from only a few niche use cases in sensing and ultra-short-range communications in early 2000s toward operational multi-kilometer range 100GBbit/s+ wireless backhaul links demonstrated recently. Building on this momentum, this article explores the feasibility of extending sub-THz communications to 100-km-scale satellite links. We first assess the technological readiness of emerging sub-THz hardware and signal-processing techniques, highlighting their potential to support long-range operation in low-Earth-orbit (LEO) systems. We then outline the unique role that sub-THz links can play as a complementary solution to existing millimeter-wave and optical (``laser'') satellite technologies, offering additional capacity, improved resilience, and new architectural flexibility. We further discuss open research and engineering challenges toward implementing such sub-THz satellite communication systems in practice. We finally outline the key state-of-the-art solutions and the roadmap of TeraLink, an ongoing international R&D project aiming to build and launch, through an approved NASA CSLI space mission, the first hardware prototype of sub-THz LEO satellite communications in space.

翻译：亚毫米波（sub-THz，100GHz-300GHz）无线技术在近二十年经历了显著变革——从21世纪初仅应用于传感器和超短距离通信等有限场景，发展到近期已演示实现工作距离达数公里、速率超100Gbit/s的无线回传链路。基于这一进展，本文探讨将亚毫米波通信扩展至百公里级卫星链路的可行性。我们首先评估新兴亚毫米波硬件与信号处理技术的技术成熟度，揭示其支持低地球轨道（LEO）系统远程运行的潜力。进而阐述亚毫米波链路作为现有毫米波与光学（“激光”）卫星技术补充方案的独特作用，可提供额外容量、增强弹性及架构灵活性。随后讨论实际部署此类亚毫米波卫星通信系统所需解决的开放式研究与工程挑战。最后概述关键技术解决方案以及TeraLink国际研发项目的路线图——该项目旨在通过NASA已批准的CSLI空间任务，构建并发射首个亚毫米波低轨卫星通信空间硬件原型。