The real issue is how to keep the UAV away from other users. If sense and avoid can not be solved in a practical manner (and it wont for some time IMO), then the UAV will have to carry a fairly sophisticated 3-D map of where it is allowed and where it is not. Not hard, but not trivial either. Remember that the hardware and data need to be robust since there are lives at stake.
If you are concerned about hamming, another key issue is GPS. If it goes down or is lost, that kind of UAV is clueless as to where it is. Most do not have inertial navigation systems due to cost and weight
In terms of control stations, there are means of doing hand offs between control stations and doing relaying. No magic there. If someone was spoofing or jamming command radios, the FCC would be on it rapidly, since its a serious safety issue. That said, its doable, all it take are watts. Presumptively the control signals themselves are authenticated and encrypted to insure that a hostile takeover is not possible.
Agreed, good stuff...
I just don’t think anything is un-spoofable...But that falls into the safety issue we agree on...
I just believe the way this all has been demonstrated to the HPD and other VIP’s, is just so that when it is officially unveiled, it will be difficult for the naysayers to have any real chance to make a dent in the ever present Houston “Awwww, but we’ve done so much work on this already! We can’t cancel it now!?!?!” crowd...
If they had been a little more open about why they want this, and how they are going to pay for it...It might have been at least a straight up fight, but they ducked behind the bushes and tried to sneek it by...
Whats the saying???
“That dawg don’t hunt!”