Hackers Could Launch Their Own Satellites to Create an ‘Uncensorable Internet’

“The first goal is an uncensorable internet in space. Let’s take the internet out of the control of terrestrial entities,” [Nick] Farr said.

[…]

In the open-source spirit of Hackerspace, [Armin] 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.

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/hackers-could-launch-own-satellites-create-uncensorable-internet-155906200.html

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