The world is getting more and more advanced and the space race is speeding up day by day. All the companies are working to build the most advanced technology. SpaceX, the leading space company, has shocked the world and conquered the space by developing the most powerful rocket ever, a medium-lift launch vehicle, small satellite telecommunications networks to generate revenue, and an experimental launch vehicle system along with the Starship to invest in research and development. In all that. Another huge step has been taken by spaceX that is completely going to uplift the already strong position of spaceX in space.
In early 2020, Elon Musk had decided to partly withdraw from his roles as CEO of Tesla and SpaceX in order to focus on his new business endeavour. This new venture is called Quantum AI. According to Morgan Stanley, a multinational investment bank and financial services company’s analyst Adam Jonas, SpaceX could be at the forefront of a radical change in communications using quantum physics.
So, what exactly is this Quantum AI? By definition, Quantum AI is the use of quantum computing for computation of machine learning algorithms. Thanks to computational advantages of quantum computing, quantum AI can help achieve results that are not possible to achieve with classical computers. QuantumAI is an upgrade from computers as you know them. In fact, Elon beat IBM, Microsoft and few others who have been developing this form of computing for years to the punch. This is not just a technology – it’s a technology on steroids.
It is the most powerful computer. Do you want to know how much power is making the Quantum AI the most powerful one? So, if you take all the computers of the world and then link them together, you will still be 100 times less powerful than the Quantum AI computing. So just a single Quantum computer is 100 times more powerful than all the computers of this world. Now the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire, Elon Musk is going to use the Quantum AI in different fields. Its one use will be in the Space communications.
The appeal of a space-based quantum communications network is that it has a greater range and is more flexible than a terrestrial fiber-based network. According to the analyst from Morgan Stanley, from a SpaceX perspective, the commercial potential of quantum communications networks and its potential advantages of its rapidly deploying in-space comms architecture may provide significant optionality to the story and its valuation.
He further said, to our knowledge, SpaceX has not commented in detail on the enabling technology (ie. particle entanglement generators, quantum repeaters, random number generators, advanced cryogenics, etc) or the economic potential of quantum communications, we believe the company’s increasingly dominant position in space, satellite communications and DoD/government work makes this a natural extension of their capabilities.
The need for such massive technology here is that due to long distances in space, it is difficult to send the information like photographs taken by the satellites or the data they have gathered to Earth. There is a lag time between sending the information and receiving it.
In the form of entangled photons and satellites, quantum technology (applying quantum physics concepts in technology form) can make space communication easier and faster. High-definition images and videos might be delivered faster and more efficiently using these communication methods. This, in turn, would broaden the scope of space exploration and improve space travel by allowing astronauts to communicate more quickly with experts on Earth.
In a 2020 article for Wired Magazine, NASA paired with MIT’S Lincoln Laboratory to develop a quantum laser system to help relay information from the ISS. Soon after that, spaceX announced the news.
Now how is the Quantum going to be used for space communications. The quantum method will use a low-orbit satellite to send encrypted messages to ground-based stations with greatly increased distance between the two communicating parties, compared to other methods of communication.