Been a busy few months as Xairos has been featured at a number of space, quantum, and futurology events. Many of these were recorded so check these out:

• Space Foundation Global Alliance Webinar and Speaker Series: “Quantum Optical Communications as a Replacement for GPS” 
• QED-C Quantum Marketplace presentation “Network Security Post Quantum”
• America’s Seed Fund Startup Expo 2023 featured startup presentation.
• "What is the Quantum Internet? And why should you care?" at the Gig City Goes Quantum event.
• Foundation for the Future podcast.
• “Quantum Communications Overview” based on our APSCC presentation.
• “Quantum Time Transfer: An Overview” keynote at the Workshop on Synchronization and Timing Systems 
• “Global Time Distribution via Satellite-Based Sources of Entangled Photons” LSU/Xairos presentation

We are also planning for our next investor webinar so stay tuned!

Xairos was selected as one of nine companies to be featured during the America's Seed Fund Startup Expo!

"The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs provide over $4 billion in funding to small businesses each year" to nearly 4000 companies a year, and hundreds applied to be featured in the Expo. 

Of these, Xairos was one of only nine companies selected "as a shining example of how public-private partnerships through programs such as America’s Seed Fund (SBIR/STTR) enable and nurture the commercialization of innovative R&D to advance the creation, growth, and sustainability of small businesses."

As part of this honor Xairos will get the exposure to government agencies and a national audience through the Expo:

• A video highlighting Xairos' technology and journey to commercialization through the SBIR/STTR program
• Give a live presentation
• Participate in a panel session
• One-on-one sessions with all the major government funding agencies

You can register here to virtually attend America’s Seed Fund Startup Expo 2023 on Monday, May 15th from 2:30 - 5:00 PM EDT.

Security vs. Resilience, and Why You Need Both
There is a difference between resilience and security.
A resilient network is resistant to outages; a secure network is resistant to eavesdropping.
For any network, including satellite systems, these are two different design considerations.

Security
Security comes from the CIA triad: protecting against outsiders getting access to (confidentiality), modifying (integrity), and disrupting access to your information (availability, which is also a component of resiliency).
RF links from satellites are subject to eavesdropping (breaking confidentiality), spoofing (integrity), and jamming (removing availability).
Security is achieved primarily through sophisticated encryption and anti-jamming techniques (changing power levels and frequency).
But security is always a game of one-upmanship. Even proving your secure network is actually secure is a challenge.
This is the promise of quantum communications: leveraging the laws of physics to ensure a secure link (more below).

Resilience
At its simplest definition, resilience is the ability to withstand difficulties.
For a system architecture, the US Air Force defines resiliency as the ability "to continue providing required capabilities in the face of system failures, environmental challenges, or adversary actions."
There is a growing recognition that our satellite systems, including GPS, are vulnerable because they "were designed for a peaceful, benign environment without a threat."
But those days are over with the recent scary advancements in anti-satellite weapons.
Moving towards resilient space systems is now a priority (check out the newsletter to learn more).
It should be noted that for position, navigation, and timing (PNT) users, assurance is also critical. This means maintaining multiple sources in case one part of the system is compromised.

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The theme of this week's newsletter is an extension from our QED-C Quantum Marketplace presentation on network security, which will be posted on their website soon. All communications can be hacked by eavesdropper - except for quantum communications. Entangled photons can only be measured once, thanks to the no-cloning theorem, and the quantum process is fundamentally random.

Check out our latest newsletter to learn more about how to create a resilient network, with a case study on:

• How not to create a resilient PNT network: thirty-one very expensive satellites, each of which would take years to replace, in a well-known orbit that makes them easy to knock out.
• On the other side of the spectrum, a truly resilient PNT network contains space segment, a ground segment and a user segment, with satellites in a mix of MEO, GEO, inclined GEO, and LEO orbits, Loran-C terrestrial networks, and inertial and quantum sensors.

Don't miss your chance to check out our QED-C Quantum Marketplace presentation focused on "Quantum Timing for Network Security" today at 1 pm ET. You can register for the event here.

The Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C) was funded under the 2018 National Quantum Initiative Act as "a consortium of stakeholders that aims to enable and grow the quantum industry." Xairos was an inaugural member and a beneficiary from QED-C's efforts to bring together the quantum community, including these regular Quantum Marketplace presentations. 

This particular webinar is focused on using quantum for secure networks. Other presenters will talk about quantum key distribution (QKD) and post-quantum cryptography (PQC) for distributing encryption keys for secure communications. Should be interesting!

Xairos is the only company talking about quantum timing - which makes sense, as we invented this and own the IP outright. And if you miss it, it will be recorded and available on the QED-C website later.

If you are of a certain age, you may recall the space race between the United States and Soviet Union. Set during the tension of the Cold War, it was was a period of incredible advancement. The first satellites, first astronauts, and the first humans on the moon – all achieved within a couple of decades of intense competition spurred by the shock of the Sputnik launch.

Now there is a new Sputnik Moment – this time from China.

China has now launched three quantum satellites, with plans for more; announced their ambitions to have the first settlement on the moon; and commissioned a better-than-GPS alternative (BeiDou) with plans to make it even better.

NASA has gotten the message, as confirmed by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson: "It is a fact: we're in a space race."

He is alarmed (as we should all be); China has a lot of resources, a top-down focus, and understands how reliant we are on GPS as a single point of failure for our modern society.

Fortunately, NASA has a secret weapon: the support from a thriving commercial new space sector, something that didn’t exist in the 1960’s.

Over the course of an eventful week the barriers to space were dramatically lowered. 

On Thursday, the largest rocket in human history flew for over 3 minutes before ending with a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.” Five days later, a private company attempted to join an exclusive club by putting a lander on the moon. 

On the face of it, these efforts were unsuccessful. But by all other metrics they were huge steps forwards. 

In the olden days (only a decade ago) space was the domain of government agencies. Their missions were infamous for being overly cautious, over budget and over schedule. 

Then came the new space paradigm: failure is an acceptable step towards success. All successful companies go through it – but unlike buggy beta software releases that are quietly patched later, space missions tend to be public and spectacular. Doesn’t matter that the ispace lunar lander likely crashed; they are already planning to return to the moon next year, joined by Astrobotics, Intuitive Machines, and Astrolab. 

Of course, you have to be extra careful when it comes to sending humans into space. While the second NASA Artemis mission will be nearly two years after the first successful mission, the next Starship test flight is only waiting “a few months” with plans to launch “hundreds of missions” before launching humans. 

When you have a long trail ahead, you can either wait for perfect conditions. Or you can start riding.

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This week's newsletter highlights how the new space approach is going to revolutionize not only our access to space, but our daily lives (including our plans for a better GPS). 

When I started in the space industry thirty years ago, satellites were hundreds of millions of dollars and “change” was a dirty word. A frequent problem was parts obsolescence because these satellites used decades-old electronics and technology. Innovation did not exist because there was no appetite for risk. 

The new space era changed all of that. I was at a conference in 2017 when the Planet Labs founder stated “We don’t mind if we lose 20% of our satellites, because they cost half as much.” You could hear the audience gasp. 

The new space virtuous cycle has lowered launch costs from $50,000 to $200(!) per kg and made our system feasible.

Hughes Space and Communications, 1996

ispace Lunar Lander, 2020

Spire Global, 2022

Check out our latest newsletter to learn more about:

• Before it crashed the Hakuto-R lunar lander took an amazing picture reminiscent of the famous Blue Marble.
• Check out our upcoming speaking gigs – its nice to be in demand!
• There were some interesting revelations in the recent classified document leak.

In case you missed it, check out our presentation "What is the Quantum Internet? And why should you care?" by Dr. James Troupe, the inventor of our quantum clock synchronization protocol. It is a lecture that is a bit advanced, so you can also check out some of our previous overview presentations:

• “Quantum Communications Overview” based on our APSCC presentation
• “Quantum Time Transfer: An Overview” keynote at the Workshop on Synchronization and Timing Systems.
• “Global Time Distribution via Satellite-Based Sources of Entangled Photons” LSU/Xairos presentation
• Apogeo Spatial podcast "Global Timing with Quantum Technologies in Space"
• Case Closed article "GPS is Ripe for Disruption"

Xairos has been invited to give a lot of talks recently. This not only shows the interest in our technology, but allows us to to connect with potential partners, investor and customers. So keep your eyes out for:

• May 4 - QED-C Quantum Marketplace Network Security presentation
• May - Space Foundation Global Alliance interview
• June 19 - LSU/Xairos paper presentation at the Quantum 2.0 Conference
• July 19 - Time Appliances Project presentation (invitation from Meta)
• October - National Space-based PNT Advisory Board presentation
• January 2024 – Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications (PTTI) presentation

Have you ever wanted to learn about Quantum Networking?  Then check out this upcoming talk by our own Dr. James Troupe as part of the Gig City Goes Quantum event. 

His presentation will cover all areas of quantum networking and quantum communications. 

But quantum networks, also known as the quantum internet, refers specifically to a network of quantum computers. And unlike the regular internet, the quantum internet can do more than just share information between computers.   “The power of quantum computing is in having a large number of qubits… If you can link those “live” qubits, you’ve linked the internals of your quantum computers, and you’ve effectively created a bigger quantum computer.” For example, a quantum network that connects a 5000 qubit quantum computer in New York with a 4000 qubit quantum computer in Chicago can harness 9000 qubits of computing power.

As you can imagine, the business opportunity for the owner of the quantum internet is enormous; the users that develop quantum algorithms for drug discovery, AI, chemical engineering, and finance, will pay handsomely for quantum network access time. 

Building a quantum network has been identified as a US national priority and has already led to funding and testbed opportunities. But a functional quantum network won't happen overnight; it will need new technology, “incredible time synchronization,” and an entanglement distribution network, ideally through satellites. 

Hmmmm, who do we know that is building a space-based entanglement distribution network?

GPS has been the gold standard for global position and timing for nearly three decades.
It is estimated that there are over 6.5 billion GPS receivers in the world, nearly one for every person on Earth.
 But that commonality is also its biggest flaw – GPS cannot change.

Imagine you can develop a competing system from scratch?
You would start with lots of satellites and ground stations to improve accuracy and resiliency. You would add optical links, two-way time transfer, Global Short Message Communication and Search-and-Rescue Services.

That is what China provides with BeiDou.
And they have plans to expand the capabilities to provide “decimeter-level positioning and navigation” (compared to a few meters), and “underwater, indoor and deep space coverage.”

That isn’t to say there aren’t plans to improve on GPS – but most of these are meant for military users.
A commercial option is needed.

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This week's newsletter was inspired by the recent Harvard report "China's BeiDou: New Dimensions of Great Power Competition," which lays out concerns that BeiDou is a soft power tool. For over twenty years there has been concern that GPS is a single point of failure. But now China has their own more resilient version, is delivering BeiDou receivers to their allies, and the US government is worried: "Our potential adversaries also know how much we rely on GPS. The adversary is going to try to come at it on day one of any potential conflict.” 

Check out our latest newsletter to learn more about:

• How did you celebrate Yuri's Night? Access to space has changed a lot since 1961, and Yuri Gagarin would be amazed!
• Xairos is expanding overseas!
• Have you ever wanted to learn about Quantum Networking? Then check out our presentation next week.
• And where is Gig City?

Doesn't matter whether you celebrated Yuri's Night or not - access to space has brought us immeasurable benefits, including GPS.  Yuri’s Night commemorates when Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space on April 12, 1961, but in reality the space era really started with Sputnik in 1957.
 Since then, we have seen three distinct space epochs:

The Space Race
 The early decades were dominated by the space race between the US and USSR, when space missions were developed exclusively by government agencies.

The Commercial Space Era
By the 1980s, commercial space companies were starting to form around creating commercially-viable business outside just government contracts. This era saw the rise of large satellite operators like Intelsat, which was originally formed as International Government Organization, and PanAmSat, the scrappy operator determined to break Intelsat’s monopoly.
Unfortunately, these large monopolies, expensive launch options, and the failure of the first LEO constellations in the late 90s helped chill the momentum towards truly commercial space companies.

The New Space Era
But that changed with the dawn of the new space era in the 21st century. Adventurous venture-backed space startups, like SpaceX, Skybox, Planet Labs, and ABS, showed that space business could be lucrative.
This drew in new investment and an explosion of new space companies, growing from practically none in 2010 to nearly 1800 companies and over $272B invested today.
But more importantly, it enabled a virtuous cycle that brought cheap access to space, with launch prices falling from tens of thousands of dollars to a few hundred dollars per kg.

What does the Future Hold?
In the commercial sector, we are seeing novel business plans, exits, and the emergence of space-terrestrial hybrid networks.
And as commercial space takes over activities traditionally done by government agencies, these agencies can focus on pure science and ground-breaking missions like the JWST and Artemis program.
This, in turn, has enabled a new space race, this time to bring us common folk to orbiting space stations, the moon and even Mars.

Yuri Gagarin would be impressed.