The world's first portable quantum satellite earth station in Shandong's Jinan conducted its first docking with Mozi, the world's first quantum satellite, on Dec 30, 2019.
Mozi was developed independently by China and launched into earth orbit on Aug 16, 2016. It realized quantum communication with the Earth, winning wide acclaim around the world.
The docking lasted for eight minutes and mass encrypted information was transmitted.
The earth station is as small as a paint bucket and weighs about 80 kilograms. It was jointly built by the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), QuantumCTek Co Ltd and the Jinan Institute of Quantum Technology.
Zhang Qiang, professor of USTC and executive dean of the Jinan Institute of Quantum Technology, said that the portable station is a breakthrough in the commercialization of quantum technology as the one used during the launch of Mozi, was over 10 tons.
Zhang noted that the researchers successfully minimized the size of the station through trial and error, saving manufacturing cost and making it possible to put the station on vehicles to operate without limitations of time and space.