China achieves world's first microsatellite-based, real-time quantum key distribution

(ECNS) -- China has achieved the world's first real-time space-to-ground quantum key distribution between a quantum microsatellite and lightweight, portable ground stations, according to the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) on Thursday.

The research team demonstrated satellite-based quantum key distribution with multiple ground stations and achieved the sharing of up to 1.07million bits of secure keys during a single satellite pass, according to the finding published in the international academic journal Nature.

The USTC-led Micius satellite has verified the feasibility of satellite quantum communications. However, scaling up quantum satellite constellations is challenging, requiring small lightweight satellites, portable ground stations, and real-time secure key exchange.

This achievement lays a solid foundation for the future launch of multiple microsatellites to form a quantum constellation, opening up new development paths for the global deployment of the quantum network. (By Gong Weiwei)