Authors: Hossein Omidi Zadeh

Low-Earth-orbit (LEO) mega-constellations are increasingly turning to optical inter-satellite links (OISLs) for the formation of a worldwide, multi-gigabit mesh. Such platforms also present themselves as lucrative targets for adversaries armed with anticipated NISQ-era quantum computers. We present the first solution to (i) incorporate post-quantum remote attestation in a Zero-Trust Architecture (ZTA) and (ii) orchestrate context-aware, dynamic key management over OISLs re-configuring at lightspeed. The system employs the emerging FIPS-203/204 lattice standards for authentication and opportunistically harvests continuous-variable quantum keys where link budgets permit. In a 1 500-node ns-3/OPTISim simulation of a Starlink-scale constellation the system achieves < 5 ms attestation latency, introduces only 0.1 s of added link setup, and limits good-put loss to 1.3 %. The solution is flight-qualified: it repurposes commercial optical terminals and requires only a firmware update of the on-board computer.