HYPERSPACE aims to extend the hitherto untapped potential of high-dimensionally entangled photons to long-distance free-space communications. Encoding several qubits per transmitted photon increases channel capacity and yields significant benefits in the implementation of advanced quantum information processing protocols, such as improving resilience with respect to noise and eavesdropping in secure quantum communications. Therefore, increasing the dimensionality of quantum systems can be considered as one of the next important technological steps to realize more practical quantum protocols in real-world scenarios. To this end, HYPERSPACE encompasses research along the complete process chain of photonic quantum information processing, from noiseresilient quantum state encoding, over fully fibered and photonic integrated quantum light sources and free-space compatible state analyzers to the implementation advanced quantum protocols facilitated by the use of quantum state encoding in multiple, highdimensional degrees of freedom. Building on this approach we will provide a technology roadmap towards an intercontinental quantum communication network linking Canada and Europe. In order to facilitate deployment on scalable small-scale satellite platforms, HYPERSPACE aims not only to develop new protocols based on hyper-entanglement, but also to transfer these to low-cost scalable photonic integration platforms.
