China launched a pioneering satellite mission Monday to prove the viability of quantum communications from space, an innovation that could led to a worldwide network to transmit hack-proof messages among military forces, financial institutions and multinational companies.
A Long March 2D rocket boosted the Quantum Science Satellite into orbit Monday. The 1,300-pound (600-kilogram) satellite lifted off from the Jiuquan space center in northwest China’s Gobi Desert at 1740 GMT (1:40 p.m. EDT) Monday, or 1:40 a.m. Beijing time Tuesday.
Officials nicknamed the satellite Micius — also known as Mozi — after an ancient Chinese philosopher and scientist.
The satellite went into orbit over Earth’s poles at an altitude of about 305 miles, or 490 kilometers, after deploying from the Long March 2D launcher’s second stage.
Kicking off a two-year mission, the Micius satellite will test out quantum communications over greater distances than ever tried on the ground. It will help establish an encrypted connection between ground stations in China and Austria with the help of scientists in both countries.
“We have been doing things like quantum cryptography and quantum teleportation, and other things, in the lab beginning in the mid-1990s, and we have extended this outside the lab, with experiments between two islands of the Canary Islands with distances of 100 miles or so,” said Anton Zeilinger, a professor of experimental physics at the University of Vienna. “Now, the next logical step is the satellite.”
The concept calls for an instrument aboard the newly-launched satellite to generate a pair of photons, tiny sub-atomic particles of light. Then a high-power telescope on satellite will beam one half of the pair to ground stations in China and Europe.
The photons will be in a quantum state, meaning their properties depend on the other. Quantum entanglement has never been proven over such great distances before.
Scientists on the ground will use the photons to create a secret key, allowing messages to be exchanged between Europe and China via conventional networks like the Internet. The key is needed to break the encrypted code.
“The satellite can then establish a quantum cryptographic key, for example, between China and Austria to be the first worldwide secure quantum communication,” Zeilinger said in an interview with Spaceflight Now.
The benefit of quantum communication is in its security. According to a report by Nature in July, the key is derived from the polarization of a string of photons, and any attempt to hack or tinker with the messages is immediately detectable.
“Hack-proof” messages could aid military and government officials, lead to more secure banking services, and help protect personal and corporate intellectual property.
“The idea of the satellite is that you use the quantum channel, as it is called, to establish a key between China and Europe, a secret key which is known only to the two players … And then they can use it to encode and decode a message, and that encoded message can then be sent by any means, like the Internet or whatever you want,” Zeilinger said.
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Pan Jianwei, the Chinese leader of the Quantum Science Satellite project, was a graduate student under Zeilinger in the 1990s. Pan recruited his former teacher and adviser to lead the European side of the mission, which includes several ground stations that will connect with partners in China.
Pan said one of his biggest worries about the mission is ensuring the technology aboard the satellite all works. Some of the equipment has never flown in space before.
“These kinds of experiments have never been done in the sky,” Pan said in an interview with Chinese state television before the launch. “In order to receive good signals from such a long distance, the materials we use for making signals are the best in the world. At the same time, we should make sure the detector works well in high radiation levels because the detector wi