How QEYnet Is Enabling Quantum Communications in Space on a Global Scale
March 3, 2025
By Krystie Johnston
QEYnet is a Canadian space-based quantum communications company on a mission to build the world’s first global quantum key distribution (QKD) network enabled by low-cost microsatellites. They will be demonstrating their QKD technology soon, taking a pivotal step towards establishing a new era of ultra-secure communication on a world scale.
QEYnet was founded in 2016 by world leading experts in spacecraft engineering and quantum communications. Cordell Grant, CEO and co-founder, has been at the forefront of the low-cost, high-performance satellite market for more than 20 years, and his co-founders are award-winning experts in quantum science and computing. “Combined, we form a space-based quantum communications company that is trying to do interesting quantum technology in space,” he says.
Quantum communications integrated into microsatellites may sound like science fiction – but Grant says these technologies are real and they have been around for a while. What does one have to do with the other, and what do they have to do with global cyber security? “The question that always comes up around this is why? Why do you need to go to space to do this kind of thing? What does one have to do with the other?” He says that to understand this pairing, you need to understand a bit about quantum communications technology, otherwise known as quantum key distribution, or QKD.
A brief look at quantum communication
“QKD is an old technology. It was invented in the 80’s, so it has been around now for four decades,” Grant explains. “The challenge is not to invent something brand new. It is to make practical something that has been impractical to accomplish for the last few decades. The reason why it is challenging is that QKD involves exchanging information between two parties by exchanging particles of light. What is unique about QKD is that, instead of shining a light, you are sending single photons.”
By utilizing photons, QKD leverages the principles of quantum mechanics to securely exchange communication between two parties. Grant explains that if you can exchange individual photons, it is also possible to exchange encryption keys and prove that that exchange is impervious to undetected eavesdropping. “If anybody tries to get in the middle of that, then you will automatically be able to detect it, as proven by the laws of physics. And that opened up the possibility of the theoretically perfect exchange of encryption keys, which enables very secure communication.”
QEYnet’s technology does not communicate information per se; what it does is encode information in each photon by adjusting their polarization so that each one uniquely and randomly corresponds to a zero or a one (like bits in a binary system). The sequence of zeros and ones constructed between two parties becomes the encryption key. “That encryption key is used to secure or encrypt the data that you then want to transmit in some other way,” explains Grant.
This video explains the technology:
Data is becoming increasingly valuable, and its security more critical. Cryptography is one way to encode information so that only the sender and the intended recipient can read it. Public key encryption is one example of this. However, with the advancement of quantum computing, this encryption is at risk of being compromised, putting sensitive data at risk. QKD is theoretically immune to interception, even from powerful quantum computers, making it appealing to applications where security is paramount.
What do satellites have to do with quantum communication?
Military and government require secure communication at home and abroad. Crypto hardware, for example, are physical devices that store private keys and allow parties to communicate securely with each other all over the world. Grant says these are the types of applications where QEYnet’s space-based QKD technology will be most applicable. “Rather than transporting all this hardware all over the world, wouldn’t it be easier to get it from a satellite passing overhead instead?”
A single satellite in Earth orbit can go around the planet 15 times per day, providing global QKD connectivity while simultaneously overcoming terrestrial fiberoptic transmission losses. Grant explains that, on Earth, fiberoptic cable is efficient at communicating information via light – but using satellites allows for secure communication over longer distances. “When you are talking about the single photon level, fiberoptic cable – as good as it is – has so much loss over long distances, that beyond 100km or so, not enough photons can get through the cable to be able to do QKD anymore. And that is where the idea of satellites comes in.”
QEYnet’s quantum communications technology integrated into satellites has enormous potential for the space industry itself. The current paradigm is that when a satellite launches, it must have everything it requires for its mission on board, including the payload and the bus. For example, if it is an imaging satellite, it will have a camera (payload) and power system, computer, control system (bus), and a set of statically preprogrammed encryption keys.
“There is no way to get more keys up there,” explains Grant. “Imagine a scenario where you just launched a satellite that took five to ten years to design and build. Hundreds of millions of dollars have gone into this. You get in orbit, and you find out, ‘Oh. We think there is a security breach. Our encryption keys might have been compromised.’” What do you do? QEYnet’s QKD system avoids scenarios like this.
“We are building a QKD system that is not just going to be for our own satellites to distribute encryption keys all over Earth,” explains Grant. “It is something we can sell to other people building satellites so they can have QKD capabilities on their own satellites. They can use it to better secure their communications. They can rekey their satellites. They can update the encryption keys that are on board. They can use it either to be more proactive about their security – so they are constantly refreshing the keys to keep their satellite secure – and they can also potentially use it reactively. If they fear their keys are compromised, they can recover by re-keying the satellite.”
QEYnet facilitates secure quantum communications for any satellite
Grant says their QKD system also has the potential to be used for innovative zero-trust spacecraft architectures that were not possible in the past. By incorporating QEYnet’s technology, any payload manufacturer can have complete control of the data security in orbit, eliminating the potential breaches inherent in subcontracting the design, manufacture, and operation of advanced equipment like satellites and related ground infrastructure. “You can be confident that nobody can ever decrypt the data that is being produced by the payload, including those who built and operate the host satellite bus, the data from which is flowing through the satellite and ground systems to get to the end user,” affirms Grant.
QEYnet’s technology has been developed over the last four and a half years and has reached what Grant calls “TRL 6”, meaning it has been fully tested and is ready to go into space. Recently, the Canadian Space Agency awarded $1.4 million dollars to contribute to QEYnet’s demonstration of QKD technology in space. Grant says the contribution will let them build a satellite and send it into space for the first time to verify that it does what they think it will do. “It is no easy task to send one photon at a time to an orbiting satellite that is five or six hundred kilometers above us, travelling at seven and a half kilometers per second,” Grant says.
Verifying that everything will work in reality is an exciting next step, one that few other companies have yet taken. Quantum communication between space and Earth is a recent development. “It is worth noting that this has only ever been done once before in any significant way. And that was a Chinese satellite that was launched in 2016,” says Grant. “They spent perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars on that mission.” For QEYnet to be the second group in the world to demonstrate this technology – technology developed by a handful of Canadians and not a lot of money – would be pretty cool to say the least.
QEYnet’s technology addresses engineering challenges
“One of the reasons why we are able to pull this off for roughly $1,000,000 rather than $100.000,000 is that – knowing this has to go on other people’s satellites – we specifically tried to make it as small and low power and efficient as possible,” says Grant. “We specifically set out to rethink the complexity that is involved with this technology and make it as simple as possible and as manufacturable as possible, so that we can imagine building these in the quantities that the space industry would require.”
One of QEYnet’s unique innovations involves the detectors they integrated to spot each single photon. Grant explains that competitors in the quantum communication space use elaborate detectors that impede the design and complicate their engineering. “In some other applications where they are trying to do QKD, there are fancy detectors that need to be cooled to -80°C to really function in space,” says Grant. “We have gone a different route, and selected detectors that can work at room temperature.”
“The fancy detectors need to be fed with fiberoptic cable, which means that from 600 kilometers away, you have to be able to focus the photons onto a tiny tip of a fiberoptic cable to get it into your detector. We avoided all that by using detectors that have much bigger detection areas,” says Grant. “We have sacrificed some efficiency in doing that, but overall, made the system so much simpler in the process.” This will enable QEYnet to build their own satellites to distribute encryption keys between locations on Earth that are less expensive to build, and manufacture, compared to the competition.
New challenges and new opportunities
The space industry is changing. It is becoming more commercialized and commoditized. And there have been drastic shifts with respect to launch capabilities, opening accessibility and availability of getting into space.
Innovative technologies like QEYnet’s quantum communications are opening tremendous opportunities in this space. “You hear ‘quantum,’ and your mind immediately goes to quantum mechanics and science. But ultimately, you must engineer something, and make it practical, and inexpensive enough, that people are able to afford to put it on their spacecraft. That is no easy feat. A lot of challenges are not necessarily physics challenges. They are engineering challenges.”
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