(GIST OF SCIENCE REPORTER) QUANTUM SATELLITE AND COMMUNICATIONS

(FEBRUARY-2025)

QUANTUM SATELLITE AND COMMUNICATIONS

India set to join quantum satellite race for a hack-proof communication network, the Department of Space is planning to launch a quantum satellite in 2-3 years for quantum communications.

Key Developments

India is set to join an elite group of countries with quantum satellite capabilities, securing communication networks against hacking and cyber-attacks.
The satellite will play a key role in the larger quantum communications network under the National Quantum Mission (NQM).
The NQM has set up four Section 8 companies across four verticals of quantum technologies that the mission aims to incubate: computing, communication, measurement, and sensing.
The communications vertical seeks to make communication in India completely safe from quantum computers capable of breaking today’s encryption technologies.

Quantum Satellite and Communications

A quantum satellite is a communications satellite that uses quantum physics to secure its signals.
Communications is a broad term that refers to technologies that send and receive signals.

An important part of these technologies is security: preventing bad actors from intercepting a message being transmitted across large distances, through multiple networks.
The advent of quantum computers threatens the technologies currently being used to secure messages.
Quantum physics has also paved the way for new forms of protection, and quantum satellites are expected to facilitate them.

Quantum Cryptography and Quantum Key Distribution (QKD)

Quantum cryptography (also known as quantum encryption) refers to various cybersecurity methods for encrypting and transmitting secure data based on the naturally occurring and immutable laws of quantum mechanics.
Quantum cryptography uses the tenets of quantum physics to secure messages. Its most famous type is quantum key distribution (QKD).
Quantum key distribution utilizes the unique properties of quantum mechanical systems to generate and distribute cryptographic keying material using special-purpose technology.
The Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technology underpins Quantum Communication technology that ensures unconditional data security by virtue of the principles of quantum mechanics, which is not possible with the conventional encryption systems.
QKD systems are not typically used to encrypt secure data itself, but rather to make a secure key exchange between two parties by collaboratively building a shared private key, which can in turn be used for traditional symmetric key encryption methods.

Working of QKD

QKD systems work by sending individual photon light particles across a fiber optic cable.
This stream of photons travels in a single direction and each one represents a single bit, or qubit, of data—either zero or one.
Polarized filters on the sender’s side change the physical orientation of each single photon to a specific position.
The receiver uses two available beam splitters to read the position of each photon as they’re received.
The sender and receiver compare the sent photon positions to the decoded positions, and the set that matches becomes the key.