China gets first data from its `hack-proof` satellite

Beijing: China on Thursday said the first batch of data from the world's only quantum satellite, which can provide "hack-proof" communications at speeds faster than light, has been received by it.

The data was received yesterday by the China Remote Sensing Satellite Ground Station (RSGS), a branch of the at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, located in Miyun on the outskirts of Beijing.

The 202 MB of data was in good quality and was transferred to China's National Space Science Centre, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

China launched 600-plus-kilogramme satellite on Tuesday. It is nicknamed "Micius," after a fifth century BC Chinese philosopher and scientist.

The satellite is designed to establish "hack-proof" quantum communications by transmitting uncrackable keys from space to the ground, and provide insights into the strangest phenomenon in quantum physics - quantum entanglement, the report said.

RSGS is responsible for establishing satellite reception for China's space sciences and has already built a network for near-earth satellite reception.

Apart from the receiving station in Miyun, a station in Kashgar, northwestern China, and one in Sanya, southern China, will also track and receive data from "Micius" in the future, the report said.

Quantum communication boasts of ultra-high security as a quantum photon can neither be separated nor duplicated.

It is hence impossible to wiretap, intercept or crack the information transmitted through it.