SpeQtral-1 Satellite - Nanosats Database

Spacecraft name	SpeQtral-1
Form factor	CubeSat
Units or mass	16U
Status	not launched, expected in 2025
Launcher	not launched
Organisation	SpeQtral
Institution	Company
Entity type	Commercial
Headquarters	Singapore
Manufacturer	AIVT by NanoAvionics
Operator	?
Partners	Mbryonics
Oneliner	Transmit QKD photons from the satellite down to optical ground stations.
Description	SpeQtral, a leading quantum communication technology company, has chosen Kongsberg NanoAvionics (NanoAvionics) as the satellite bus provider for its upcoming SpeQtral-1 mission. The second partner in this mission is Mbryonics, producing the satellite’s optical terminal. Using the technical expertise of NanoAvionics as a leading smallsat bus manufacturer and mission integrator, and Mbryonics’s state-of-the-art optical terminal hardware, SpeQtral-1 will serve as a pathfinder commercial demonstrator, defining future quantum key distribution (QKD) services. SpeQtral-1 is aimed at providing communications services that require quantum security, as traditional cryptographic techniques are threatened by the emergence of quantum computing. The nanosatellite is based on NanoAvionics’s high-performance and multi-purpose M16P bus, which has been flight proven during multiple Earth observation missions. The satellite’s quantum-optical terminal by Mbryonics will transmit QKD photons from the satellite’s hardware down to optical ground stations. SpeQtral-1 will be SpeQtral’s second QKD satellite, following the SpeQtre technology demonstrator mission, itself built on technologies demonstrated on the 2019 SpooQy-1 CubeSat. SpeQtral cited NanoAvionics’s “consistent track record of building and successfully launching satellite missions, its invaluable expertise and an impressive portfolio of accomplishments as the reason for the mission selection”.
Sources	[1] [2] [3]
Photo sources	[1] [2]
Keywords	Laser transmitter, QKD-Quantum Key Distribution

Last modified: 2024-05-30