MO-SPACE: communicating securely with quanta
With his start-up, aerospace engineer Michael Ullrich wants to provide the highest standard for secure communication
Not everything that rushes through the airwaves is intended for other people’s eyes and ears. Administration, businesses, and the military have always relied on information being confidential. Because of this, encryption is almost as old as civilisation itself. Since then, cryptographers have been neck and neck with codebreakers. With the current development of quantum computers, the latter could soon hold the ultimate tool in their hands. With them, it might be possible to decipher even the most well-thought-out code.
Cryptography, too, relies on quanta and is now heralding the creation of quantum cryptography, the highest standard for secure communication. Cryptographers are convinced that it won’t get any more secure than this. Based on our current understanding of the laws of nature, quantum cryptography cannot be broken. Michael Ullrich is one of the people at the forefront of this field. With his start-up MO-SPACE, he is working on a device distributing quanta in a way that a quantum key can be created by the interlocutors. “For sender and receiver to securely communicate with each other, they must agree on using a specific key,” he explains. Put in simple terms, this key is a type of user handbook for making the message readable after it has been encrypted. With very powerful computers, however, these keys can be reverse-engineered and thus broken.
“We use quanta to make a key available,” says the aerospace engineer. “A quantum is the smallest unit of any energy. This can be a photon, for example, the way we know it from light. We use this by distributing it to the receivers via a laser communication terminal.” This could be done using fibre-optic cable, he says, but the method has its pitfalls. It works better if the quantum key unit has a clear view of the receivers. As a payload on a high-flying stratospheric vehicle, for example. Or a satellite. And that’s exactly what MO-SPACE plans on building in Adlershof. “Our payload will contain everything required for quantum generation and distribution,” he says. “It will shoot a quantum stream, i.e., a beam of focused light, to two ground stations. They collect as many quanta as possible and exchange them with each other.” By doing so, they create a key that enables both stations to securely communicate. By the nature of quanta, the key can never be reverse-engineered and, with that, never be broken. So, what if an eavesdropper listens in by standing in the beam? That, too, is not possible with quantum encryption. As soon as somebody tampers with the connection, they give themselves away instantly.
Communication using laser light has been with Michael Ullrich for his entire professional career. He worked on it for many years at various aerospace companies. For a long while, he was carrying the idea around with him to start his own. Finally, then, he founded MO-SPACE in June 2022. Based at the Innovation and Start-up Centre (IGZ) in Adlershof, he is now working on turning his idea into a market-ready product. The fact that the new “Leap” innovation hub and co-working space opened just one floor above him is the icing on the cake, he says. The aerospace engineer generally has high hopes for his future on the Adlershof site: “I chose Berlin because I went to university here and have lived here for a long time,” says Michael Ullrich. “I also thought I would have the best chances to find young talent for our team here. Our business requires know-how in many fields – from microelectronics to power electronics, and from quantum physics to space technology.”
Kai Dürfeld for Adlershof Journal