Hackers plan space satellites to combat censorship

 

Hackers plan space satellites to combat censorship
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16367042
By David Meyer
Technology reporter

Computer hackers plan to take the internet beyond the reach of censors by
putting their own communication satellites into orbit.

The scheme was outlined at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin.

The project's organisers said the Hackerspace Global Grid will also involve
developing a grid of ground stations to track and communicate with the
satellites.

Longer term they hope to help put an amateur astronaut on the moon.

Hobbyists have already put a few small satellites into orbit - usually only
for brief periods of time - but tracking the devices has proved difficult
for low-budget projects.

The hacker activist Nick Farr first put out calls for people to contribute
to the project in August. He said that the increasing threat of internet
censorship had motivated the project.

"The first goal is an uncensorable internet in space. Let's take the
internet out of the control of terrestrial entities," Mr Farr said.

Beyond balloons
He cited the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) in the United States as
an example of the kind of threat facing online freedom. If passed, the act
would allow for some sites to be blocked on copyright grounds.

Whereas past space missions have almost all been the preserve of national
agencies and large companies, amateur enthusiasts have in recent years sent
a few payloads into orbit.

These devices have mostly been sent up using balloons and are tricky to
pinpoint precisely from the ground.

According to Armin Bauer, a 26-year-old enthusiast from Stuttgart who is
working on the Hackerspace Global Grid, this is largely due to lack of
funding.

"Professionals can track satellites from ground stations, but usually they
don't have to because, if you pay a large sum [to send the satellite up on a
rocket], they put it in an exact place," Mr Bauer said.

In the long run, a wider hacker aerospace project aims to put an amateur
astronaut onto the moon within the next 23 years.

"It is very ambitious so we said let's try something smaller first," Mr
Bauer added.

Ground network
The Berlin conference was the latest meeting held by the Chaos Computer
Club, a decades-old German hacker group that has proven influential not only
for those interested in exploiting or improving computer security, but also
for people who enjoy tinkering with hardware and software.

When Mr Farr called for contributions to Hackerspace, Mr Bauer and others
decided to concentrate on the communications infrastructure aspect of the
scheme.


Mr Bauer says the satellites could help provide communications to help put
an amateur into space
He and his teammates are working on their part of the project together with
Constellation, an existing German aerospace research initiative that mostly
consists of interlinked student projects.

In the open-source spirit of Hackerspace, Mr Bauer and some friends came up
with the idea of a distributed network of low-cost ground stations that can
be bought or built by individuals.

Used together in a global network, these stations would be able to pinpoint
satellites at any given time, while also making it easier and more reliable
for fast-moving satellites to send data back to earth.

"It's kind of a reverse GPS," Mr Bauer said.

"GPS uses satellites to calculate where we are, and this tells us where the
satellites are. We would use GPS co-ordinates but also improve on them by
using fixed sites in precisely-known locations."

Mr Bauer said the team would have three prototype ground stations in place
in the first half of 2012, and hoped to give away some working models at the
next Chaos Communication Congress in a year's time.

They would also sell the devices on a non-profit basis.

"We're aiming for 100 euros (£84) per ground station. That is the amount
people tell us they would be willing to spend," Mr Bauer added.

Complications
Experts say the satellite project is feasible, but could be restricted by
technical limitations.

"Low earth orbit satellites such as have been launched by amateurs so far,
do not stay in a single place but rather orbit, typically every 90 minutes,"
said Prof Alan Woodward from the computing department at the University of
Surrey.

Continue reading the main story
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Start Quote

Any country could take the law into their own hands and disable the
satellites"

Prof Alan Woodward
Surrey University
"That's not to say they can't be used for communications but obviously only
for the relatively brief periods that they are in your view. It's difficult
to see how such satellites could be used as a viable communications grid
other than in bursts, even if there were a significant number in your
constellation."

This problem could be avoided if the hackers managed to put their satellites
into geostationary orbits above the equator. This would allow them to match
the earth's movement and appear to be motionless when viewed from the
ground. However, this would pose a different problem.

"It means that they are so far from earth that there is an appreciable delay
on any signal, which can interfere with certain Internet applications," Prof
Woodward said.

"There is also an interesting legal dimension in that outer space is not
governed by the countries over which it floats. So, theoretically it could
be a place for illegal communication to thrive. However, the corollary is
that any country could take the law into their own hands and disable the
satellites."

Need for knowledge
Apart from the ground station scheme, other aspects of the Hackerspace
project that are being worked on include the development of new electronics
that can survive in space, and the launch vehicles that can get them there
in the first place.


Until now launching communications satellites has proved to be too expensive
for amateur groups
According to Mr Farr, the "only motive" of the Hackerspace Global Grid is
knowledge.

He said many participants are frustrated that no person has been sent past
low Earth orbit since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

"This [hacker] community can put humanity back in space in a meaningful
way," Farr said.

"The goal is to get back to where we were in the 1970s. Hackers find it
offensive that we've had the technology since before many of us were born
and we haven't gone back."

Asked whether some might see negative security implications in the idea of
establishing a hacker presence in space, Farr said the only downside would
be that "people might not be able to censor your internet".

"Hackers are about open information," Farr added. "We believe communication
is a human right."

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