TNO joins European project to develop space-based ‘quantum internet’

Terrestrial global quantum internet is “blocked” due to signal losses in fiber, says Netherlands research group.

TNO, an independent not-for-profit research organisation based in the Netherlands, has joined a European collaboration to develop what it calls a “global quantum internet enabled from space”. The group’s justification is that a possible terrestrial future global quantum internet is “blocked” due to the significant signal losses in fiber.

TNO believes that satellites are required “so that cities and continents can be connected to eventually be part of the global quantum internet and fully benefit from its promising applications,” it stated.

To provide for this, TNO and the Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS) and a consortium of other European partners, join forces in the LaiQa-project, which stands for Leap in Advancing of critical Quantum key distribution-space components.

This development was announced on September 1st in Berlin, Germany. Kees Buijsrogge, Director TNO Space, commented, “By combining TNO’s expertise in the field of quantum, classical networks and free space optics with the expertise or our European partners, we’re confident we can develop the space technology to make it happen.”

Because of their unprecedented computational power, quantum computers will offer new possibilities for innovation, stated TNO, adding, “In the coming decades, such computers are expected to solve some of the biggest challenges humankind is facing in medicine discovery, material design, predictive analysis, to give some examples.”