The Committee to Nuke Elysium

The International Space Station could soon be relaying messages secured using quantum entanglement, if a proposed experiment is accepted by the European Space Agency later this year. If the experiment was successful it would be a step towards unbeatably secure satellite communications between any two points on earth. One form of quantum cryptography exploits the way particles like photons can become “entangled”, into a state where any change to the properties of one affects the other, even across great distances. Einstein famously described it as “spooky action at a distance.” When entangled photons are used to communicate a secret pass-phrase, monitoring their quantum partners makes it possible to know instantly if someone has tried to intercept the message.