Micro­sa­tel­li­te-Based Real-Time Quan­tum Key Dis­tri­bu­ti­on

Chi­na deve­lo­ps Micro­sa­tel­li­te for QKD:

A future Quan­tum Net­work con­nects Quan­tum Devices with revo­lu­tio­na­ry com­pu­ting power and thus enables secu­re glo­bal com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on. A Quan­tum Satel­li­te Con­stel­la­ti­on offers a solu­ti­on to faci­li­ta­te the Quan­tum Net­work on a glo­bal sca­le. Howe­ver, sca­ling up Quan­tum Satel­li­te Con­stel­la­ti­ons is chal­len­ging, requi­ring small light­weight satel­li­tes, por­ta­ble ground sta­ti­ons and real-time secu­re key exch­an­ge. Chi­na has made signi­fi­cant pro­gress with the deve­lo­p­ment of a quan­tum-based micro­sa­tel­li­te. This micro­sa­tel­li­te secu­re­ly trans­mits keys from space to earth using com­pact ground sta­ti­ons.
The Quan­tum Micro­sa­tel­li­te fea­tures a pay­load weig­hing appro­xi­m­ate­ly 23 kg, while the por­ta­ble ground sta­ti­on weighs about 100 kg – signi­fi­cant­ly ligh­ter than the Mici­us satel­li­te. The bidi­rec­tion­al satel­li­te-ground opti­cal com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on is used for Quan­tum Com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on, enab­ling key distil­la­ti­on and secu­re com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on in real-time. Up to 0.59 mil­li­on bits of secu­re keys can be trans­mit­ted in a sin­gle satel­li­te pass. The micro­sa­tel­li­te can be rea­di­ly assem­bled on exis­ting space sta­ti­ons or small satel­li­tes, paving the way for a satel­li­te-con­stel­la­ti­on-based quan­tum and clas­si­cal net­work for wide­spread real-life appli­ca­ti­ons. Chi­na is plan­ning to deploy more Quan­tum Com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on Satel­li­tes in 2025 to fur­ther expand its net­work capa­ci­ty. Click here for the publi­ca­ti­on.