SpeQtral is commercialising quantum communications to prepare the world for the quantum future. Think quantum space lasers, entanglement, and military level secure communications.

As part of their mission to transform the world’s networks, they plan to launch a constellation of satellites to enable worldwide entanglement distribution (QKD). The earliest application of this is highly secure delivery of encryption keys to facilitate secret communications, using their upcoming pathfinder satellite and an optical ground station (OGS) currently under development in Singapore.

Project role: Mission Control Software Engineering for Quantum Satellite Programme

This project is about supporting the R&D of their optical ground station (OGS) for space-based QKD at SpeQtral, paving the way for new technologies to enable global quantum communications. This covers various software development tasks for operating the OGS hardware, plan and schedule OGS operations by developing automated software tools, and to configure and optimise a web-based GUI for controlling the OGS.

The Trainee will be part of the Mission's team and work closely with the OGS developers. The scope of work includes:

• Familiarisation with the basics of experimental OGSs for QKD and the necessary systems and quantum technologies.
• Familiarisation with the basics of software tools and architectures used (python, front-end/back-end design, RESTful web APIs, RabbitMQ, Grafana, GIT).
• Configuration of a website based front-end for controlling and monitoring the OGS.
• Tuning of the web GUI for optimal visibility of information and usability.
• Programming of RESTful API features within OGS control back-end (hardware-close).
• Operations scripts for automated pass planning/scheduling (e.g. Pass planning based on latest satellite telemetry).
• Implementation and test of software and hardware interfaces in python (Weather forecast, ADS-B Airplane position receiver, Opto-mechanical hardware).
• Analyse performance parameters and optimise individual tasks.
• Prepare documentation and guides to support the usage and operations of data systems and APIs supported and/or developed at SpeQtral.