The satellite is set to launch from Jiuquan Satellite launch Center later this month, and if initial experiments in this two-year mission prove successful, it could soon be followed by a fleet of others, according to Nature.
The researchers are working to prove that particles can remain entangled across great distances – in this case, nearly 750 miles.
Earlier efforts to demonstrate quantum communication have shown this can be up to just over 180 miles, and scientists now hoping that transmitting the photons through space will push this even farther.
When travelling through air and optical fibres, protons get scattered or absorbed, Nature explains, posing challenges to the preservation of the fragile quantum state.
But, photons can travel more smoothly through space.
Achieving quantum communication at such distances would enable the creation of secure worldwide communications networks, allowing two parties to communicate using a shared encryption key.
In quantum physics, entangled particles remain connected so that actions performed by one affects the behaviour of the other, even if they are separated by huge distances.
So, if someone were to attempt to listen in on one end, the disruption would be detectable on the other.
Over the course of the two-year mission, the researchers in China will conduct a Bell test to prove the existence of entanglement at such a great distance.
And, they will attempt to ‘teleport’ quantum states, according to Nature, meaning the quantum state of the photo will be rebuilt in a new location.
Researchers from Canada, Japan, Italy, and Singapore have also revealed plans to conduct quantum experiments in space, including one proposed aboard the International Space Station.
This experiment would attempt to create a reliable and efficient means for teleportation.
By achieving quantum teleportation, the researchers say they could create a telescope with an enormous resolution.
‘You could not just see planets,’ Paul Kwiat, a physicist at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign involved with the Nasa project, ’but in principle read licence plates on Jupiter’s moons.’
In its first task, the Chinese craft will fire the photon pairs to stations in Beijing and Vienna, to generate the encryption key.
But as the work continues, it may soon be joined by others.
‘If the first satellite goes well, China will definitely launch more,’ Chaoyang Lu, a physicist at the -University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, told Nature.
To create a network that connects the world, roughly 20 satellites would need to be deployed.