China's quantum satellite makes
breakthrough in secure communications
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[June 16, 2017]
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese
quantum satellite has dispatched transmissions over a distance of 1,200
km (746 miles), a dozen times further than the previous record, a
breakthrough in a technology that could be used to deliver secure
messages, state media said on Friday.
China launched the world's first quantum satellite last August, to help
establish "hack proof" communications between space and the ground,
state media said at the time.
The feat opens up "bright prospects" for quantum communications, said
Pan Jianwei, the lead scientist of the Chinese team, Quantum Experiments
at Space Scale (QUESS), according to the official Xinhua news agency.
The scientists exploited the phenomenon of quantum entanglement, in
which a particle can affect a far-off twin instantly, somehow overcoming
the long distance separating them, a situation termed "spooky action at
a distance" by the Nobel-prize winning physicist Albert Einstein, Xinhua
added.
The team had successfully distributed entangled photon pairs over 1,200
km, it said, outstripping the distance of up to 100 km (62 miles) at
which entanglement had previously been achieved.
The technology so far is "the only way to establish secure keys between
two distant locations on earth without relying on trustful relay," Pan
told Xinhua, referring to encrypted messages.
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The new development "illustrates the possibility of a future global
quantum communication network" the journal Science, which published
the results of the Chinese team, said on its website.
China still lags behind the United States and Russia in space
technology, although President Xi Jinping has prioritized advancing
its space program, citing national security and defense.
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China insists its space program is for peaceful purposes, but the
U.S. Defense Department has highlighted its increasing space
capabilities, saying it was pursuing activities aimed at preventing
adversaries from using space-based assets in a crisis.
China's launch of the first experimental quantum satellite was a
"notable advance in cryptography research", the Pentagon said this
month.
(Reporting by Christian Shepherd; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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