IQC researchers, led by Thomas Jennewein, have been awarded $250,000 by the Canadian Space Agency to train and develop Canadian grad students through a space science and technology project.
The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) funding will support Thomas Jennewein (Physics and Astronomy) and his QEYSSat team in conducting a demonstration of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) between a receiver payload on an airborne platform and a transmitter on the ground.
Previous experiments by other researchers have shown that by placing a transmitter on a tethered low-altitude balloon they could downlink QKD. With a new innovative approach, Jennewein's team will demonstrate uplink QKD with the receiver flying to establish QKD up to a moving airborne platform. This project takes Jennewein's team one step closer to demonstrating space-based QKD as part of the proposed QEYSSat microsatellite mission.
![Thomas Jennewein on the roof of RAC1 with his students](/institute-for-quantum-computing/sites/default/files/uploads/images/130924-tjennewein_feature.jpg)
The IQC project was one of 10 CSA funded projects announced this week. The CSA awards help give graduate students hands-on experience in designing, building and testing flying scientific technologies with the goal of keeping Canada at the forefront of space research.