[myself248]

It's easy to buy an end-user terminal and tear it apart on your workbench to develop an understanding of how it works. I don't know about you, but I haven't seen any satellites on eBay recently.

Also, most satellites are intentionally as dumb as possible, just a "bent pipe" transponder, putting all the complexity on the ground stations which are easier to service if something goes wrong. There might not be much to do on the satellite itself.

[lxgr]

With the right commands, you could flip the satellite by 180 degrees, move it from Europe to the pacific ocean, or crash it into one of its neighbors.

All geostationary satellites need to be capable of at least some station-keeping to correct for drift, move them to other service areas, or move them to a graveyard orbit at their end of life. (Unlike LEO, GEO satellites don't carry enough fuel for de-orbiting, and friction is essentially nonexistent at that altitude.)

That layer of commands is hopefully very well protected.

[okl]

> That layer of commands is hopefully very well protected.

Typically some form of HMAC authentication. You can read about it in the CCSDS Blue Book.

[lxgr]

What a fascinating rabbit hole. Thank you!

[shaklee3]

that is a completely separate layer run by and built by a different company using technology from 20 years ago