China’s Chang’e 4 lunar far side mission hits 1,000 days

1. Space vehicle and communication infrastructure
2. Summary: https://www.space.com/china-chang-e-4-moon-far-side-1000-days
   1. China’s Chang’e 4 lander and Yutu 2 rover both reached the 1,000-days-on-the-moon mark on Sept. 28.
   2. “The Yutu 2 rover has covered a total of 2,754 feet (839.37 meters) of lunar ground and acquired 3,632.01 gigabytes of data during its driving.”
   3. The Yutu 2 beat the previous longevity record (321 days) for rover working on the surface of the moon.
   4. The Queqiao relay satellite, launched in 2018, bounces data and commands between the spacecraft and ground station.
   5. The Yutu 2 is now headed to a new site that could take over 2 years to reach
   6. Both the Queqiao and Yutu 2 are healthy and able to continue the mission for the foreseeable future.
3. Cybersecurity Implications:
   1. Given that this is a record-breaking scientific mission, many potential threat actors may want to interfere.
   2. Nation-states might hack the space vehicle or communication infrastructure to take control or steal mission data.
   3. Cybercrime groups might hack the communication infrastructure to steal data that they can then sell.
   4. Hacktivist might hack the space vehicle or communication infrastructure for the street cred of interfering with a historic mission.
4. Critical Systems:
   1. Critical systems include the control systems for the Yutu 2 rover, control systems for the Queqiao relay satellite, and the communication system that controls the flow of data between the two. Critical data includes the 3.6 thousand gigabytes collected by the Yutu 2.