China on August 16, 2016 launched the world's first quantum satellite named Quantum Experiments at Space Scaler (QUESS) satellite. The satellite was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the remote northwestern province of Gansu. The satellite will help establish hack-proof communications between space and the ground. The satellite is nicknamed Micius, after a 5th century BC Chinese
philosopher and scientist who has been credited as the first one in human history conducting optical experiments. It is designed to establish hack-proof quantum communications by transmitting uncrackable keys from space to the ground. The satellite is both an extreme test of the weird properties of quantum mechanics, and a technology testbed for what could be the start of a global, unhackable communications network. It will enable secure communications between Beijing and Urumqi, the capital of China's violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang.
The satellite will circle the Earth once every 90 minutes after it enters a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 500 km.
A team led by Mr. Jian-Wei Pan of the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei will conduct its own experiments with QUESS, using photons to test quantum entanglement, in which the quantum properties of two particles are linked even when separated, over a record-breaking 1,200 kilometres. The team will also test quantum key distribution, a form of secure communication in which the laws of quantum mechanics prevent eavesdroppers from snooping in. If successful, they hope to create a communications network. First, QUESS will undergo three months of testing. If everything is correct, it would be handed over to the scientists for scientific experiment, said Mr. Pan
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