Satellite navigation has been the unsung hero that powers geolocation technologies for decades – many of us refer to our sat-nav when seeking directions, but few appreciate the tech behind it.
The reality is that much of the world now relies on signals transmitted by satellites, thousands of miles above the Earth’s surface, and there aren’t many industries that are free of this. Smartphone mapping, aircraft navigation, telecoms and military operations are among the most obvious.
However, recent concerns about the resilience of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) have been growing, with jamming and spoofing incidents on the rise, and ongoing geopolitical tensions continue to shape those concerns.
It’s also worth noting that GNSS doesn’t work reliably (or at all) in many environments that now require solid connections, like underwater, underground and at the poles.
All of this comes at a point in time when countries are looking to reduce their reliance on single tech vendors and technology sources (the EU springs to mind), and progress is now being made to identify the next suitable steps.
Could quantum sensing replace – or add to – GNSS?
One of the most promising solutions to date is quantum sensing, and researchers are already discovering ways to measure time, gravity, acceleration and magnetic fields to a highly precise degree.
It works by cooling atoms to temperatures just fractions above absolute zero, where they’re highly stable and sensitive, making them perfectly usable in these ultra-precise use cases. The technology is called cold-atom technology.
The biggest change is that this technology is now starting to creep outside of the lab as it evolves beyond a research project.
And while it doesn’t look like we’ll be fully replacing GNSS with quantum sensing any time soon, I wanted to know whether hybrid systems that include cold-atom technology could be implemented to improve resilience in an increasingly turbulent world.
To get to the bottom of it, I spoke with Aquark Technologies CEO Andrei Dragomir to understand whether quantum systems could be made small and affordable enough and how they could coexist with existing satellite infrastructure.
- Let’s start with an obvious question. What is cold-atom hardware and why is it useful for quantum sensing? Are we going to talk about absolute zero?
Cold-atom hardware refers to systems that use lasers and magnetic fields to trap and cool clouds of atoms until they are almost perfectly still.
To generate the highest accuracy – essential when we’re dealing with high-precision applications like sensing and timing – the atom needs to be undisturbed for as long as possible. That means removing noise (such as vibrations) and averaging out random variations. And yes, to do this, we are talking about absolute zero. For hardware like our cold-atom clocks, we laser-cool the atoms close to absolute-zero – minus 273.149996°C, to be exact.
Or, as we like to say, we create one of the coldest places in the universe inside our hardware.
Why this is useful for quantum sensing goes back to accuracy. At this extreme temperature, the atom’s natural ‘quantum’ frequency can be measured highly accurately for long periods.
In this state, the atoms are hyper-sensitive to external forces. This makes them the ultimate probes for detecting tiny changes in gravity, acceleration, or magnetic fields – signals that classical sensors simply cannot see.
Cold atoms have been at the forefront of quantum metrology for the past 40 years, but now, for the first time, we’re moving these complex systems out of the lab and into the real world. To do this, Aquark is focused on miniaturisation – making the systems smaller and more portable, as well as robust.
- There are other alternatives to GNSS, what are their pros and cons and how do they compare with the solution you’re championing?
There are now several ways to navigate without GNSS, and a growing set of alternatives is being developed to improve resilience. Some of the most established options are localised sensing systems, such as cameras and LiDAR, which allow real‑time decision‑making based on the surrounding environment. These methods work well when visual features are available, but they remain limited by their narrow field of view, reliance on stable maps, and lack of wider situational awareness.
Beyond these approaches, new possibilities are emerging in quantum navigation. Traditional inertial systems estimate position using internal sensors, while quantum devices aim to measure gravity or magnetic fields to determine location more accurately. However, these techniques depend on detailed environmental maps, and although quantum sensors are becoming extremely precise, the maps needed to support them are not yet available at the same resolution.
Alongside these newer technologies, eLoran remains a long‑standing terrestrial system using powerful radio transmitters. Its main limitation is the need for large, fixed towers that are difficult to deploy, very visible, and physically vulnerable.
Another developing method uses high‑precision ground‑based timing sources to create localised “GPS‑like bubbles,” allowing a moving platform with a stable clock to determine its position. This offers a resilient option in areas where satellite signals are weak or disrupted as well as providing holdover time for synchronisation when applied to conventional systems. This is what we are currently working on enabling. It is just a first step towards full inertial navigation capabilities where multiple quantum sensors need to be integrated for a full system. Combining high precision timing, with acceleration and rotation measurements would result in an exceptionally accurate system, however this is still several years away.
None of these technologies are expected to replace GNSS outright. Instead, they are intended to augment existing capabilities, improve resilience, and provide back-ups where satellite navigation may be unreliable or unavailable.
- The press release mentions clocks for telecoms, what’s the importance of such a product for both military and civilian usage?
Timing is an essential resource – one which practically everyone and everything relies on. Telecoms is one of these industries, since 5G and 6G networks require nano-second level synchronisation between towers. High-precision clocks, like cold-atom clocks, mean that if a signal is lost, say, due to a solar flare or local interference, the network can continue running.
We know the time right now largely thanks to GNSS, but GNSS relies on radio signals to work, which are easily interfered with and signal coverage significantly reduces at the Earth’s poles and completely vanishes underwater.
Cold-atom clocks provide an independent, accurate, and reliable timing source without relying on GNSS for long periods.
The reason these systems are beneficial in both civilian and military use cases comes down to resilience and precision. Just as GNSS jamming is a very real security threat used in times of conflict, it can also impact civilian travel, with commercial airlines often falling victim to attacks as collateral. So having an unjammable, unspoofable system is highly desirable. Similarly, an accurate and reliable navigation system that works underwater or in the polar regions can, on the one hand, strengthen defences, but on the other, provide opportunities for scientific exploration and discovery in seldom-explored regions, and timing is a first step towards enabling that.
More reliable timing brings with it a whole host of benefits, both for civilians and defence. It means more energy efficiency, better autonomous navigation, faster data communication, and greater security.
- Miniaturization is the word I retained from the press release. While I understand the importance of being small and nimble (integration, cost, power consumption). Are there any other reasons why small is better when it comes to quantum sensing?
Exactly that – small and nimble ultimately means easier integration, lower cost and reduced power consumption. Another important benefit, especially in regards to sensing applications, is portability.
Cold-atom hardware tends to be large and power hungry, so by reducing size, weight and power consumption, these technologies can more easily transition outside of the lab and into a wider range of challenging, real-world environments.
Our hardware is designed to be picked up and shaken about. It can be placed on a drone, in a boat, in an underwater vessel and withstand environmental disturbances like vibrations, wind, rain, waves, and high-pressure.
Our trials with the Royal Navy and the National Oceanographic Centre exposed the systems to these harsh and unpredictable environments. Despite the conditions, the technology performed successfully, revealing the robustness of the hardware as well as identifying where we can increase power and integration efficiency even more.
Additionally, if the sensors are small, you can use more of them at once to create a kind of quantum sensing “grid” to increase its range and ability.
But the big win is actually scalability. The main effort is around cost reduction as this technology can be extremely expensive. Combining this with a reduction in size means that the technology can be deployed in a completely different way than ever before and become an essential part of our infrastructure.
- How do you see GNSS evolving over the next 20 years? How do you envision the relationship between it and quantum sensors? Would a hybrid system make sense?
We have the hardware, but the next challenge is scalability and commercialisation. In this context, we envisage a hybrid GNSS-quantum system as quantum sensing continues to be adopted and refined by early-use customers. The reality is that cold atom clocks are at the core of GNSS already. The technology is similar. Making them smaller and more robust means we can eventually improve GNSS capabilities and potentially deploy them from low earth orbit for a stronger, more reliable signal.
Looking further in the future, when we have mass or at scale applications of quantum, we might see interconnected ecosystems of quantum devices. For everything that needs secure networks – like telecoms, financial markets, energy – this could be radical. Imagine a future where quantum computers communicate seamlessly via ultra-secure quantum networks, sharing data collected from quantum sensors that monitor and analyse the world around us in ways we can’t yet fully comprehend. Ultimately, we don’t yet know the full scope of applications and potential of quantum technologies.
GNSS has been revolutionary – it has democratised access to position, navigation and timing and for the first time in human history provided on-demand, accurate timing. But technology is in a constant state of change. We are always building on what has come before to make it even better. It is therefore not unfeasible that we will have a future infrastructure much less reliant on GNSS.
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desire.athow@futurenet.com (Desire Athow)
