Abstract
Recently, the European Commission supported by many European countries has announced large investments towards the commercialization of quantum technology (QT) to address and mitigate some of the biggest challenges facing today’s digital era – e.g. secure communication and computing power. For more than two decades the QT community has been working on the development of QTs, which promise landmark breakthroughs leading to commercialization in various areas. The ambitious goals of the QT community and expectations of EU authorities cannot be met solely by individual initiatives of single countries, and therefore, require a combined European effort of large and unprecedented dimensions comparable only to the Galileo or Copernicus programs. Strong international competition calls for a coordinated European effort towards the development of QT in and for space, including research and development of technology in the areas of communication and sensing. Here, we aim at summarizing the state of the art in the development of quantum technologies which have an impact in the field of space applications. Our goal is to outline a complete framework for the design, development, implementation, and exploitation of quantum technology in space.
Highlights
In an increasingly connected and digitalised society the reliance on satellites, and more broadly on space, is crucial for the well-functioning of our daily lives
With the availability of optical atomic clocks and optical frequency transfer, quantum technologies (QT) enables the Time standards and frequency transfer (TFT) performance to be boosted by several orders of magnitude [27, 30, 33]
Important milestones were achieved by ICE (Interférométrie atomique à sources Cohérentes pour l’Espace, France) on parabolic flight studies for dual-species interferometry [64], by QUANTUS (Quantum Gases in Weightlessness, Germany) and MAIUS (Matter-Wave Interferometry in Weightlessness, Germany) establishing interferometry with Bose-Einstein condensates in space based on drop-tower [63] and sounding-rocket experiments [8], and by the cold-atom laboratory (CAL, USA) [22], where US teams including German scientists explore physics with Bose-Einstein condensates in orbit in the Bose Einstein Condensates and Cold Atoms Lab (BECCAL) [26]
Summary
In an increasingly connected and digitalised society the reliance on satellites, and more broadly on space, is crucial for the well-functioning of our daily lives. Following the QT Flagship, the long-term vision that should be pursued is to integrate the terrestrial quantum web with a space one, where quantum computers, simulators and sensors are interconnected via quantum communication networks. This White Paper aims at summarizing the state of the art in the development of quantum technologies and their impact on the field of space applications, and to delineate a roadmap for the consideration of major actors in this area, i.e. from the European Commission – as responsible in the definition of the EU space strategy – to ESA, national space agencies and industries
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