Now this is one technology that China lead. Beyond boasting it has practical technology like un -hackable satellite communication which would be a boon for the military
China Leads The Quantum Race While The West Plays Catch Up
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China’s quantum satellite–nicknamed Micius after a 5th century BC Chinese scientist–blasts off from the Jiuquan satellite launch centre in China’s northwest Gansu province on August 16, 2016. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
Now that China has launched the
, the question is will it deliver on its promise.
Named Micius after a famous ancient Chinese philosopher-scientist, everyone knows the purpose of the satellite is to help China develop
And no one disputes that the outcome of the space-based experiments can advance relative capabilities in cryptography as well as cybersecurity, surveillance and communications, tilting the strategic and military balance in favor of China.
Some scientists, policymakers and space engineers I queried were either unsure about or remained unconvinced of Micius’ prospects. To be sure there are technical challenges, and informational and resource bottlenecks. But I am skeptical of the skepticism.
China is already ahead of its competitors
Though it may be hard for Western and more established competitors to swallow, China has an unquestionable lead at this stage and may gain from first-mover advantages. If you look around, many
in space-based quantumdom but from what we can see in the public domain they have some ways to go.
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The National University of Singapore is cooperating with the University of Strathclyde in the UK to carry out quantum experiments using cubesats. Canada is aiming to generate and send pairs of entangled photons from the ground to a microsatellite in space.
This is also true of the more advanced space powers, which certainly have research and programs on point. A leading physicist in Austria tried to persuade the European Space Agency (ESA) for a long time about satellite-based experiments to enable a truly global quantum network. With an eye on moving closer to free-space quantum cryptography, Japan’s
did a laser communication demonstration between a low earth orbit satellite and an optical ground station back in 2006.
In the United States, there have been feasibility analyses of
that came out of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1999. DARPA, whose mandate is to create breakthrough technologies for U.S. national security, had grants in 2008 for a
And the U.S.
to spur innovations in quantum information science, and to help engineer a secure quantum communication system on a chip that serves national needs.
The man leading the charge
Also, China has been involved in an impressive academic track record beyond its borders. One man’s long intellectual march stands out.
Long before he won accolades and was inducted as the youngest ever researcher into the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China’s Jian-Wei Pan was onto something. His Ph.D. thesis in 1999 at Vienna University’s Institute for Experimental Physics was a clue to where he might be headed:
While still a doctoral student, Pan worked with a set of coauthors to further the
, meaning the transmission and reconstruction of the state of a quantum system across any distance. With his coauthors, Pan also claimed an experimental first in communicating quantum information in the process of quantum teleportation.
So Pan is not laboring behind some Chinese curtain as many observers might mistakenly think. From his education to his experimentation, Pan’s work builds on the traditions of academic research, and draws in leading researchers around the world. There are the
that have defused some concerns about the complications that entangled photons, critical to the experiments, must face as they separate and travel vast and unfriendly distances. There are also
that bolster the promise of ultrasecure cryptographic devices.
Pan’s
, another renowned physicist in this area, is now also collaborating with him on the Micius mission.
And as a leading center for quantum-based research, China hosted the
in Hefei in 2014.
