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Single Photons Bounced Off Orbiting Satellite
KentuckyFC writes "If we're ever going to benefit from the perfect security of quantum communication, we're going to need ways of transmitting entangled photons around the globe and certainly further than the current record of 144km through the atmosphere. Anton Zeilinger at the University of Vienna and colleagues have taken an important step towards this by bouncing individual photons off the Ajisai geodetic satellite (essentially a space-based disco ball) which is orbiting at 1400km. The group says the experiment is an important proof of principle for satellite-based quantum communications."
... does quantum communications (not quantum computers) actually serve any potentially useful purpose? Or is it just another way for researchers to get a nice fat grant and a for a load of network equipment companies a decade down the line flog yet more replacement network equipment at a juicy markup? This isn't a troll , I'm just a bit suspicious about all the hype surrouding QC when so far we've yet to see a single usable example of anything from this research anywhere in the world.
Also if anyone spins me the line about it being unbreakable I'll take it with a large pinch of salt. I have nothing to base my cynicism on other than time and time again supposedly secure and unbreakable systems have been broken and I don't see why QC should be any different. Harder yes , but different? Hmm...