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Receiving SpaceX Falcon 9 Telemetry with a HackRF and 1.2m Satellite Dish

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Re: Receiving SpaceX Falcon 9 Telemetry with a HackRF and 1.2m Satellite Dish

#5
post #2

I feel that this data is trade secret - why it is not encrypted?

Looks like this is just data from the GPS receiver, mostly about where the rocket thinks it is at the moment. This doesn't strike me as particularly sensitive. Data from, say, sensors embedded in the engines would be much more interesting.

Re: Receiving SpaceX Falcon 9 Telemetry with a HackRF and 1.2m Satellite Dish

#6
Some sleuths repaired/decoded a corrupted video file from (the first?) splashdown of a Falcon 9 in the ocean a few years ago [0], so maybe someone is able to tease out some information from the recorded binary data as well? They only searched for obvious string data so far.

It's a different beast of course, as the structure and meaning of the data is basically unknown in contrast to the known format of a video file.

Maybe some meanings can be inferred, let's say that a value in the possible range of rpms of a turbopump is correlated with acceleration or so?

[0] https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/06/recovering-falcon-9-...

Re: Receiving SpaceX Falcon 9 Telemetry with a HackRF and 1.2m Satellite Dish

#7
post #5
post #2

I feel that this data is trade secret - why it is not encrypted?

Looks like this is just data from the GPS receiver, mostly about where the rocket thinks it is at the moment. This doesn't strike me as particularly sensitive. Data from, say, sensors embedded in the engines would be much more interesting.

> This doesn't strike me as particularly sensitive.

I'm no rocket scientist but I would have thought you'd want to encrypt and sign everything... by default. Otherwise how do you stop spoofing as well?

Re: Receiving SpaceX Falcon 9 Telemetry with a HackRF and 1.2m Satellite Dish

#8

Serbia and Siberia are substantially different places. Let’s hope it’s just a typo and not a bug :)

I really want to visit /S.*ia/ sometime!

I personally don't have the kind of time to visit all of /S.*ia/, I'll have to make to do with just /S\w+ia/.

Shame, really...

Re: Receiving SpaceX Falcon 9 Telemetry with a HackRF and 1.2m Satellite Dish

#9
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like this is just data from the GPS receiver, mostly about where the rocket thinks it is at the moment. This doesn't strike me as particularly sensitive. Data from, say, sensors embedded in the engines would be much more interesting.

> This doesn't strike me as particularly sensitive. I'm no rocket scientist but I would have thought you'd want to encrypt and sign everything... by default. Otherwise how do you stop spoofing as well?

Encryption takes time, and energy. I suspect they are trying to avoid adding latency to anything that’s not super sensitive.

Re: Receiving SpaceX Falcon 9 Telemetry with a HackRF and 1.2m Satellite Dish

#10
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like this is just data from the GPS receiver, mostly about where the rocket thinks it is at the moment. This doesn't strike me as particularly sensitive. Data from, say, sensors embedded in the engines would be much more interesting.

> This doesn't strike me as particularly sensitive. I'm no rocket scientist but I would have thought you'd want to encrypt and sign everything... by default. Otherwise how do you stop spoofing as well?

I can't speak to SpaceX's decision, but in FCC rulings, they have proposed encryption when commanding vehicles, not for telemetry or tracking comms (satellites, specifically, although I'd assume similar guidance for vehicles, with the only command you're going to send to the vehicle would be boom for range safety).
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