The goal is to enable fast and secure communication using quantum technology. The satellite, developed by a research consortium led by Professor Tobias Vogl of TUM, was launched into orbit by a booster rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Monday, June 23.
The mission is expected to deliver its first results by the end of this year. The QUICK³ satellite is no bigger than a shoebox and weighs around 4 kg. Its mission: to test quantum communication components that enable completely secure data transmissions from sender to receiver.
Unlike conventional communications via fiber optic cables, information transmitted by a quantum communication satellite is not contained in light pulses made up of many photons, but rather in precisely defined, individual photons. These photons have quantum states that make the transmission absolutely secure. Any attempt to intercept the message will change the state of the photons, which will be immediately detected. However, individual photons cannot be copied or amplified. This limits their range over fiber optic cables to a few hundred kilometers. Therefore, quantum satellite communication takes advantage of the special characteristics of the atmosphere.
In the upper layers of the atmosphere, light scattering or absorption is minimal. This creates ideal conditions for the secure transmission of data over long distances. For quantum communication to become an everyday reality, a global network of several hundred satellites will be needed. However, before that, the QUICK³ mission aims to demonstrate that the individual components of the nanosatellite can withstand the conditions of space and interact successfully. Developed primarily by scientists from Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU), the Ferdinand Braun Institute, the Leibniz Institute for High Frequency Technology (FBH), and the Technical University of Berlin (TUB), in collaboration with researchers from the Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnologies (CNR-IFN) in Italy and the National University of Singapore (NUS), the QUICK³ nanosatellite uses a source of single photons instead of laser beams.
“In this mission, we are testing single-photon technology for nanosatellites for the first time,” says Tobias Vogl, Professor of Quantum Communication Systems Engineering at TUM and project director. “Currently, there is no comparable project in the world. Satellites are either much heavier and therefore more expensive, or they operate using lasers, which significantly reduces data transmission speed. Transmission speed is a key advantage of our system, but satellites only have a few minutes of visual contact with ground stations in each orbit.”
The mission's second objective is to test the Born probability interpretation of the wave function under zero-gravity conditions. This function describes the probability of finding a quantum particle in a measurement at a specific location, a central concept in quantum mechanics. Whether this rule also applies universally, even in outer space, has never been experimentally verified.
More information: The QUICK³ mission is an international research project. The quantum light source was built by teams from TUM and FSU and integrated with an optical chip from CNR-IFN in Italy. FBH built a laser system to stimulate the quantum light source, which is controlled by electronic components from NUS. TUB was responsible for controlling the experiments in space and the interfaces between the payload and the satellite. Tobias Vogl was appointed Professor of Quantum Communication Systems Engineering at the School of Computing, Information and Technology at TUM in July 2023. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.
