Orion hacker sends stowaway into SPAAAAACE One of the 1.3 million names sent into space aboard NASA's Orion test capsule was a stowaway, uploaded to NASA's database by a security researcher who found and exploited a vulnerability. The name 'Payload1 Payload2' was one of three uploaded to the NASA Orion database that collected names to be later transferred to a chip …
Is this just a really long way to say SQL injection attack and inexperienced web author? Let's face it, getting a name into a list on a database which will be written to a chip isn't exactly a security threat to NASA compared to adding yourself to the list of astronauts going to the ISS for 6 months, or adding yourself to the door entry list for JPL.
what Glen1 said...
It's a point of ingress in a field where there's absolutely no tolerance for error. Space is rather unforgiving....
In this case the chip just "sat" there.. Now imagine that instead of just having it tag along, they would have done something silly, but ego-stroking, like having the list of names read out over radio during the flight over frequency [x] , if only to test a secondary channel in a public and sort-of-engaging way.. Now imagine the number of *innocent* pranks you could have pulled with that one... A malicious attack would have been a lot harder, but Spacecraft and Murphy are cousins...
... did NASA feel the need to send 1.3 million "names" into space? Surely the idiots making their names available realize that if they use cell phones, their names are already in space?
Oh. Wait. Idiots. Space-cadet wannabes. Rah-rah cheerleaders for the future.
Never-mind.
how about this (guesswork):
The porpose of the trip was to test radiation hardening of systems as well, so LEV on a chip produces small channels that cosmic radiation could distort.
The second chip had data flashed onto it, so checking if radiation damaged is a quick way of checking that the radiation shielding worked (or not), and if the circuitry had radiation induced shorts/data failure.
This would be why the chips were sent into space in my opinion
Well, at least that's broadly plausible.
I came here (the comments section) to find out what the story was actually about - without knowing why the 'names in space' thing was going on, it is impossible to assess the risks in someone subverting the process.
So, a plausible story is 100% more than I felt that the original author gave me. Make your own decision about whether that is significant.
"their names being lasered onto a chip and hurtling 6,000km over our heads around the Earth."
Maybe if it was a deep space probe or at least a multi-year orbital mission. But just for two orbits in less than 4.5 hours followed by a splashdown? It sounds like the sort of publicity stunt the Reg SPB would do with with a balloon launched rocket powered 3D printed spaceplane rather than multi-billion funded NASA :-)
>>"Maybe if it was a deep space probe or at least a multi-year orbital mission. But just for two orbits in less than 4.5 hours followed by a splashdown? It sounds like the sort of publicity stunt the Reg SPB would do with with a balloon launched rocket powered 3D printed spaceplane rather than multi-billion funded NASA :-)"
Well I'm sorry that you don't get out of bed for less than a hundred complete orbits, but if others get a kick out of this - good for them. The thing about "publicity stunts" is that they're only a negative for bad causes. If this gets schools, enthusiasts or anyone else paying attention to spaceflight, that's a good thing, imo. Have you even looked at their site? Here it is:
http://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/orion-first-flight
Go on - take a look. This is fun stuff if you're a kid, it's got a mock-up "boarding pass" for your name, you sign up for updates and you get to see maps of where it is and learn more about it.
Didn't you all get the memo? Being a jaded above-it-all cynic is so Nineties. Enjoying stuff and being enthusiastic is what the cool kids are doing these days. Go and listen to your Cure albums or something if you don't like it. :p
Go and listen to your Cure albums or something if you don't like it.
H4rm0ny,
I just mis-read that as go and listen to your Corrs albums. Wondered what the hell you were on about, went back and re-read it. And now I have the mental image of Morrissey singing light folk/pop with his more attractive sisters, while still managing to be very very depressed...
> Space-cadet wannabes.
Yup, that's me!
> Rah-rah cheerleaders for the future.
Last week, I designed a coin box for my motorcycle myself with a computer, and transmitted the design across a worldwide network to a robot that automatically created my design for a small fee.
This week, I'm riding an electric motorcycle, with a portable connection to that same world wide network of computers, that can locate itself and show me on a map where the nearest charging station is.
It don't get much more "future" than that.
the Yanks call Chips 'French Fries'..........would've been funny if they'd put 2 french fries in the capsule......might also be a better test for the Radiation Shield! If they sent them up uncooked and they came back a lovely Golden Brown, then they'd know for certain that the Shield was for shit.....don't know what they would've done with 2 Radioactive French Fries though?
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