Mini-satellite paves the way for quantum messaging anywhere on Earth

Researchers have broken the record for quantum communication by sending an encryption key nearly 13,000 kilometres from China to South Africa via a ‘microsatellite’. The fridge-sized satellite sent pulses of laser light from a rooftop in Beijing to another at Stellenbosch University. The pulses formed a quantum key used to encrypt two images — one of China’s Great Wall and one showing part of Stellenbosch’s campus. The feat, known as quantum key distribution, is a step towards being able to beam ultra-secure messages through space between any two locations on Earth, however far apart.