Both nations assure that they have used a satellite to carry out a truly secure communication transmission.
In the digital world we live in, it is difficult to stay secure in online communications. We are no longer just talking about facing viruses on WhatsApp or scams on Tinder, but large nations must keep their communications encrypted to avoid unwanted intrusions. Now, it seems that the quantum could be the solution that many were waiting for.
Quantum communication tested between Russia and China
The online newspaper South China Morning Post has been the one who has uncovered an assumption communication system between Russia and Chinawhich allows both nations to share encrypted information like it had never been done before.
Scientists from both countries they would have achieved send two encoded images with quantum keys at 3,800 kilometerswhich is the distance that separates the towns of Moscow, where one of the ground stations is located, and Urumqi, a place close to another of the stations, located in the Xinjiang region.
On Mar 1, 2023, scientists in Russia and China established a quantum communication link between a ground station at Zvenigorod Observatory near Moscow and the Nanshan ground station near Urumqi in Xinjiang — 3,800km apart — using secure keys transmitted by 🇨🇳 quantum satellite… pic.twitter.com/W0n24lzB7l
— Byron Wan (@Byron_Wan) January 3, 2024
The distance that separates both stations could have been deck thanks to the invaluable work done by the Mozi satellitewhich is one of the first satellites that has been launched into outer space to test all types of technologies based on quantum physics, such as quantum teleportation or quantum communications.
And this satellite is key for communications over long distances, since previously had been proven as the photon transmission through fiber optic networks caused the loss of many of them and, therefore, on part of the information. Furthermore, the furthest distances that could be reached on dry land were around 1.00 kilometers.
Quantum communication is considered impossible to hack and, therefore, the future of secure information transfer lies in it 🤓In China they have established the first integrated quantum communication network 👏 When will we see QKD technology in Europe? 😬 pic.twitter.com/OBYj1WG4qV
— Quantum Babylon (@quantum_babylon) January 8, 2021
Mozi was launched into Earth orbit back in 2016, but its real advances have been obtained after a team of Russian scientists began working side by side with their Chinese colleagues. It was in March 2023 when the first quantum communication between the stations of both countries was successful.
And the operation is simple in appearance. A clue It is distributed between the Russian station and the satellitewho sends it to the chinese station. Afterwards, a key between both stations and are transferred images in both directions with the help of both keys. And this is not the first time the satellite has been used for quantum communication, as Austria and China shared a quantum-safe call in 2017. Could this be the future of global communications?