FCC & NIST Urging Small Satellite Developers to Plan for Quantum Computing Technologies

(FCW) Federal agencies ranging from the Federal Communications Commission to the National Institute of Standards and Technology are pushing advances in small satellite technologies, but there is a downside for spectrum holders, according to experts.
Small satellite constellation applications are about to undergo a dramatic shift, said Bhavya Lal, research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analysis, that could cramp spectrum resources. “Up until now 80%” of small satellite applications have been for remote sensing, she said, and only 10% for communications applications. “There is an inversion coming,” she said, in which those statistics will flip, with 80% of applications focused on communications applications and 10% on sensing.
Matt Scholl, chief of computer security at NIST, urged small satellite technology developers to look beyond today’s cybersecurity algorithms to next-generation protections that take emerging quantum computing technologies into account. Today’s cipher and key management for cybersecurity is going obsolete by 2025, as quantum computing comes online.