Chinese Scientists break Quantum Communications Record

A few days ago the laws of physics were broken somewhere over the planet. 

Not really the laws of physics but per se, but an important milestone in the field quantum communication was surpassed by a group of Chinese Scientists and their satellite the Micius.

The 'sky shattering' record involved the transmission of pairs of entangled photons from the Micius Satellite to ground stations on Earth while the satellite was in Low Earth Orbit.

Quantum entanglement as described by Albert Einstein as 'spooky action at a distance' somehow connects the state of pairs of quantum particles (photons/electrons/etc) with a mysterious invisible string between any two points in the entire Universe.

Einstein was ... disturbed by the Idea because it defied his own Theory of Special Relativity that set the speed of light as the ultimate speed limit in the Universe.

Twang one particle one way on one side of the Galaxy, and the other particle on your side of the Milky Way instantaneously gets twanged back in response; No line of sight, no galaxy wide fiber network required...

Dr. Brand from Interstellar: "Love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving that transcendes dimenions of time and space..." Love or quantum entanglement...

The clever application of this could in theory lead to instantaneous communications and hack proof information networks.

At least that's the idea. No one has really gotten a practical system in place to implement it.

Until a few days ago  (16/6/2017), a group of Scientists from Hefei University of Technology (MIT China) took a major step forward in breaking the quantum communication distance record. And also a major step forward in further disturbing the ghost of Einstein...

The Micius Satellite named after Chinese philosopher Mengzi, the most famous Confucian after Confucious himself, carried crystals and lasers that generates pairs of entangled photons and transmits them on separate beams to ground stations in Delingha in Tibet and Lijiang in Mainland China. The transmission distances were more than thousands (1200 km) of kilometres apart. Not to mention that the initial transmission point was a moving object in SPACE!

The difficult thing about maintaining the state of entanglement during transmission is that interaction with normal atoms (the stuff that make you and me up) can break the entangled state between the pairs. Obviously there are still alot of bugs to work out in the system.

But a commendable effort indeed by the Chinese team involved.

Set up of the experiment.

The experiment surpassed China's own record last year where they transmitted quantum entangled photons over high quality optical fiber.

China's ambitions don't end there. The Micius is only the first of a fleet the nation plans to launch as part of its $100-million Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS) program.

Imagine that; a fleet of quantum communications spacecrafts flying over head providing a world wide quantum communications network. 

We truly live in times of incredible technological marvels.

On a QUESS for a quantum Revolution.

This cutting edge program could lead the way to a secure strategic Quantum Internet system shepherded by Chinese dominance in the field.

The challenge has been made, and met with the utmost gusto by China. How will the West respond? 

How will President Trump Respond?

Only time will tell...

Quantum What?

The experiment was done with a Satellite operating in Low Earth Orbit.

If you would like to know more about Low Earth Orbit, watch this video by our friends at Science Epic