Just read NASA fixed a problem with Voyager which is interesting but it got me thinking- wouldn’t this be an easy target that some nations could hack and mess up since the technology is so old?
In: Technology
It is, for all practical purposes, impossible to communicate with Voyager without the Deep Space Network antennae. Using those without permission also borders on impossible, as that equipment is used constantly, and any deviation from what it supposed to be doing would be noticed in an instant.
At this point don’t they need the full coverage of the Deep Space Network to even get a signal to it? A dipole surreptitiously strung up in the trees isn’t going to get it.
Old technology isn’t easier to hack than new technology. Most banks run on COBOL written decades ago and only slightly maintained. New websites get hacked all the time. Look at government website Treasurydirect.gov, people say it looks terrible, yet surely it was hacked less than many shiny websites.
think it could run doom ?
Part of the reason is *because* it’s so old. And because it’s so far away.
Right now there are very few (1 or 2) antennas on Earth that are both capable of sending a strong enough signal, and receiving such a weak signal from the Voyager Spacecraft, because they’re so far away. In fact, during 2020, there was an [11 month period where no one was able to send any commands to Voyager 2](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-deep-space-antenna-upgrades-to-affect-voyager-communications), because the only antenna capable of sending a signal to it was undergoing repairs and maintenance.
It’s not just signal strength and receiving sensitivity either. The communication protocols used to send and receive messages with Voyager are nearly 50 years old, and no longer commonly used. Not many people even know enough about the protocol to use or decode it.
It’s the ultimate in security by obscurity. To hack it you’d need hundreds of millions of dollars to construct the right antenna, put it in the right place, and then hire engineers who know this really rare and esoteric protocol to speak to it.
Why? It’s would be more effort than it’s worth. Voyager gives nothing but scientific research, so why would anyone hack it?
Its transmitter is puny compared the distance that it’s at. Even if you could blast signals up at it with an amateur setup, I think you’d need a nation-state-level antenna array to receive its extremely faint replies.
Did you know that most US nuclear missile bunkers still use floppy disks? Because they can’t be hacked into. They looked up updating the technology for the missiles, but decided against it due to money and security.
Often old code is safer because no one knows it anymore, Voyager was launched in 77 many of those folks who worked on it are dead.
There are only a few nations (and maybe universities) with access to appropriate equipment that would be capable of doing this and none of these parties has an interest in destroying an irreplaceable science experiment that the whole of humanity is benefiting from
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