Well possibly.... Who knows....
Alien Hackers Control NASA Computers (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17231695)
They say it was the Chinese but I think this is just code for "We have no idea who it was but they were bigger than us"....
The Chinese, like every other country, regularly tests its cyber-warfare/industrial espionage arsenal on various key systems. The only problem is they seem to get caught more often than other countries or at least its publicized more when its them. This type of thing has been going on for quite some time and will not stop any time soon. It does have the welcome side effect of increasing security at sensitive sites to the point where the casual hacker would have problems breaking in, however, if access is allowed at any level in the normal course of events there is always an opening for the determined hacker with the resources of a government behind them.
Personally I believe that we can be confident that every major system that allows outside access will eventually be compromised. Even those systems that do not directly allow outside access are at risk. It is possible to tunnel through a laptop with a wireless connection into a secure hardwired network if the laptop does not have an adequately secure separation between the two networks so even those "secure" systems are not really 100% guaranteed. In the end the only assumption we can make are that all data is in the hands of our enemies/competitors.
Who Cares if Nasa gets hacked?
What have they done lately?
The shuttle is done
A Mars mission is basically a dream
A moon base >>totally non existant.
And oh ya.. a space station with rotational gravity.. (like in 20001 a space oddesey)..ten years ago?
Oh the great ambitions of man!!!
Well, space exploration is better done by robots anyway. I see no reason to risk lives to explore dead planets or prove that we can "live" in space. A robot probe has almost no life support requirements and doesn't need to be entertained along the way resulting in significantly reduced costs for equivalent results. NASA is definitely heading in the right direction, the science not the WOW is whats important and the science doesn't need humans along for the ride to get done.
As for the space station, what a collosal waste of resources that could be better used for real exploration and discovery. The Hubble telescope teaches us more about the universe every 5 minutes than the entire life span of the Space Station. Its a giant publicity stunt that detracts from the real science that NASA is tasked to undertake.
much of what NASA and JPL do would fall under "national security and defense"
"space exploration" is merely the public image they want you to think of :bg
it's how they get the taxpayers to go along with all the bucks they spend for stuff we "don't wanna" know about
A lot of R&D goes into NASA. A lot of products are then used in the US that have origins from NASA.
The Chinese may be trying to get an edge on the next generations of products that can be developed by mining NASA data, for technology.
CCD Cameras.
Propulsion systems, energy systems, such as hydrogen electric systems. Aircraft systems, ram jet engines, etc. Guidance systems.
x-35... I think... pulsejet engine technology. Lots of data that could be used for new technology to give them an advantage.