4 ms·

Are communications with voyager encrypted? Is it possible for someone to setup a big antenna in their backyard and take over the probe?

yonatan8070 3y ago
I don't think there's any encryption going on there, just because it's so old But I also don't think most back yards can fit an antenna that big... search "NASA deep space network" on google images to get a scale of the antennas that are used to talk to voyager
arbuge 3y ago
It doesn't matter how big your antenna is if Voyager's antenna is no longer facing earth, as seems to have been accidentally induced here.
- bell-cot 3y ago
  Untrue, strictly speaking. So long as the combination of your transmitter's power and your antenna's directionality (aka 'gain') provide enough extra dB's of signal strength (to compensate for the dB's "lost" on Voyager's end, due to the off-axis antenna) it'll work fine. OTOH, dB's are effectively a log scale, and NASA's "not good enough now" transmitter & antenna cost quite a few $million. What's your budget? (Yeah - if the Arecibo radio telescope was still on operation, it might well have been capable of doing this.)
  - guraf 3y ago
    I suspect it is true, strictly speaking. In optimal orientation, Voyager's signal peaks at -160dBm when received on the 70m dishes. Now it's shooting 2 degrees off which means the signal misses earth by hundreds of millions of kilometres. What kind of magical high gain antenna do you envision that could still receive it, assuming money isn't a problem?
    - bell-cot 3y ago
      Voyager 2 has a direction radio antenna, not a laser producing a sharp-edged beam. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_2#Communications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_2#Communications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parabolic_antenna#Beamwidth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parabolic_antenna#Beamwidth How about this antenna? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Large_Array https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Large_Array Or this one? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-hundred-meter_Aperture_Spherical_Telescope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-hundred-meter_Aperture_Sp...
palijer 3y ago
If someone sets up an antenna in their backyard to accurately transmit and receive signals 32 billion km away, I'm willing to bet NASA would gladly trade old probes for that scientific breakthrough of the century.
- db48x 3y ago
  Their HOA would be _really_ mad.
helsinkiandrew 3y ago
A 70 metre antenna with enough control to point in the right direction. As voyagers batteries are meant to die in a couple of years, there’s probably more interesting things to do with your money. https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/details.php?article_id=118 https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/details.php?article_id=118
whartung 3y ago
"Encrypted". That's really funny. A favorite anecdote of Voyager. Paraphrasing, "You carry around more computing power in your pocket than what is on Voyager. I'm not talking about your phone, I'm talking about your key fob". The data Golay encoded, but not encrypted. That's exhausting enough for the 1/2 dozen NAND gates up there that make up its computer.
qingcharles 3y ago
These guys[1] hacked a NASA space probe and refired its motors. I read the entire blog once but I can't remember if there was any sort of encryption on the communication, although I know that was brought up. Modern probes do use cryptography, but I doubt Voyager does. I suspect if you fired commands at it you could control it. For the lulz or whatever. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Cometary_Explorer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Cometary_Explore...
qingcharles 3y ago
If you want to decode the downlink of a more recent probe, here's the details (apparently NASA don't have the source code for the decoder, but a binary was found): https://skyriddles.wordpress.com/2023/07/03/stereo-a-comes-home/ https://skyriddles.wordpress.com/2023/07/03/stereo-a-comes-h...

yonatan8070 3y ago

I don't think there's any encryption going on there, just because it's so old But I also don't think most back yards can fit an antenna that big... search "NASA deep space network" on google images to get a scale of the antennas that are used to talk to voyager

arbuge 3y ago

It doesn't matter how big your antenna is if Voyager's antenna is no longer facing earth, as seems to have been accidentally induced here.

bell-cot 3y ago
Untrue, strictly speaking. So long as the combination of your transmitter's power and your antenna's directionality (aka 'gain') provide enough extra dB's of signal strength (to compensate for the dB's "lost" on Voyager's end, due to the off-axis antenna) it'll work fine. OTOH, dB's are effectively a log scale, and NASA's "not good enough now" transmitter & antenna cost quite a few $million. What's your budget? (Yeah - if the Arecibo radio telescope was still on operation, it might well have been capable of doing this.)
- guraf 3y ago
  I suspect it is true, strictly speaking. In optimal orientation, Voyager's signal peaks at -160dBm when received on the 70m dishes. Now it's shooting 2 degrees off which means the signal misses earth by hundreds of millions of kilometres. What kind of magical high gain antenna do you envision that could still receive it, assuming money isn't a problem?
  - bell-cot 3y ago
    Voyager 2 has a direction radio antenna, not a laser producing a sharp-edged beam. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_2#Communications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_2#Communications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parabolic_antenna#Beamwidth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parabolic_antenna#Beamwidth How about this antenna? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Large_Array https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Large_Array Or this one? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-hundred-meter_Aperture_Spherical_Telescope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-hundred-meter_Aperture_Sp...

palijer 3y ago

If someone sets up an antenna in their backyard to accurately transmit and receive signals 32 billion km away, I'm willing to bet NASA would gladly trade old probes for that scientific breakthrough of the century.

db48x 3y ago
Their HOA would be _really_ mad.

helsinkiandrew 3y ago

A 70 metre antenna with enough control to point in the right direction. As voyagers batteries are meant to die in a couple of years, there’s probably more interesting things to do with your money. https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/details.php?article_id=118 https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/details.php?article_id=118

whartung 3y ago

"Encrypted". That's really funny. A favorite anecdote of Voyager. Paraphrasing, "You carry around more computing power in your pocket than what is on Voyager. I'm not talking about your phone, I'm talking about your key fob". The data Golay encoded, but not encrypted. That's exhausting enough for the 1/2 dozen NAND gates up there that make up its computer.

qingcharles 3y ago

These guys[1] hacked a NASA space probe and refired its motors. I read the entire blog once but I can't remember if there was any sort of encryption on the communication, although I know that was brought up. Modern probes do use cryptography, but I doubt Voyager does. I suspect if you fired commands at it you could control it. For the lulz or whatever. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Cometary_Explorer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Cometary_Explore...

qingcharles 3y ago

If you want to decode the downlink of a more recent probe, here's the details (apparently NASA don't have the source code for the decoder, but a binary was found): https://skyriddles.wordpress.com/2023/07/03/stereo-a-comes-home/ https://skyriddles.wordpress.com/2023/07/03/stereo-a-comes-h...