Israel Opens Its First Satellite Observatory

By Ariel Grossman, NoCamels February 02, 2023 2 minutes

The observatory has high-speed and tracking cameras, laser equipment, and a tracking robot that can carry two telescopes simultaneously. Courtesy

Israel has built its first ground station to track, sense, and photograph high-speed satellites in space.

The satellite observatory, at the Center for Quantum Science and Technology at Tel Aviv University (TAU), is one of the most advanced in the world, and is capable of communicating with satellites using lasers.

It has high-speed and tracking cameras, laser equipment, and a tracking robot that can carry two telescopes simultaneously.

“The ground station is designed for observing satellites, which are small bodies 400-500km high that move at about 30,000km/hour,” says Prof. Yaron Oz, head of the Center for Quantum Science and Technology at Tel Aviv University.

“The ability to track satellites is a very precise skill. The satellite passes by very quickly, and during this time you have to photograph it in the center of the image and in several different ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum in order to learn details about it.

“This is the first and only satellite observatory in Israel, and it is among the most advanced in the entire world.”

The new observatory can also protect and transmit encrypted data the satellites acquire using the laws of quantum physics – known as quantum communication.

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China is the only country that has successfully demonstrated quantum communication. The US has apparently succeeded as well, but has not published anything in scientific journals.

“Theoretically speaking, quantum communication is completely encrypted,” explains Prof. Oz. “It is impossible to launch a cyber attack and copy the information, because in quantum mechanics there is a principle that prevents copying.

“As soon as a third party tries to intercept a message, they destroy the original signal – for example, by changing the polarization of the photons – and both communicating parties will know that someone tried to listen in on them. That’s how it works in theory.”

In practice, he explains, there are research questions that need to be answered. For example, what happens if a signal is interfered with, not because of attempted eavesdropping, but because of bad weather?

TAU researchers will first try to establish quantum communication between ground stations, between ground stations and drones, and then between ground stations and a satellite of one of their international partners.