Reliability of Planetary Quarantine

Setting: In the future universe, with technologies based on real science that we know that theoretically can be implemented (though not feasible with today's technologies) and sub-light travel, a high security planet is under 24/7 lock down and constant monitoring from ground and orbit. The planet functions as a storage location for highly valuable, dangerous, or confidential assets, and they range from lethal pathogen, artifacts, or even digital data.

Problem: Since there are pirates, corrupt officials or other parties interested in some of the objects being stored there, security must be top notch. Nothing is allowed to illegally come in or out. All physical / digital traffic must come through official passage, with state-of-the-art scanning technologies (metal, radiation, biological detector, etc.), interrogation techniques, and all sorts of methods you can think of, which is impossible to outwit. Therefore, the best bet to smuggle things is via space ship.

Prevention Methods:

1. Planet location. Planet is located near a highly radioactive star, which would cripple most electronic devices and definitely scramble any electromagnetic signals. Furthermore, the planet itself has constant dust storm, making optical communication impossible. Digital asset smuggling is outright impossible to do, and also coordination between on ground agent & space ship in orbit. Lastly, the atmosphere is lethal enough that no one can survive in a long period even with a fully armored space suit.
2. Secured construction. All blueprints for any structure and station on the planet is designed on site, and materials are transported by launching them as asteroids from nearby star system in the most basic form (e.g. bauxite). Tools, equipments, and staff are hauled in one way, one time transportation in a huge ship. When finished, staff are put to sleep and transported to unknown location, which then their memories are completely wiped and under sort of witness protection for the entire life. No records are made.
3. Kill first ask later. Observation stations on ground and in orbit constantly monitor all EM frequencies, and compare their view with recorded star map / surface map for any objects, even stealth ones. Any object, no matter what it is, will be immediately destroyed when it's within a certain range. There is no centralized hub for controlling them, all stations are autonomous with P2P communication via laser and wire in orbital elevator for any infiltration alert or error checking. There's even automatic repair system for the least human interaction as possible, and all scraps are recycled and necessary additional materials are mined & produced on site.
4. Single transportation method. Even though there are many docking place for ships, there is only a single path for moving between surface and orbit, and that is orbital elevator. No ship is allowed between the surface and orbital station. The only thing allowed to fly in the planet's atmosphere is autonomous repair drones, which fly in low altitude and constricted to each sector of the planet's surface.
5. No human staff. There is no human allowed on the surface at all times. Even all surface structures are designed without any life support or consideration of any human entering. All surface transportation between storage building and orbital elevator is done using robots. Only a handful of human is staffed on the orbit station, and their task is just monitoring and reporting.
6. Triple encrypted passage key. All ships, personnel, and equipment must have at least 2 years of usage history, and then registered and approved by 3 different high ranking officials, with their own encryption key that change weekly. Then, that key is further encrypted using a tool that is synchronized with a number generator located on the surface of the storage planet. The encryption protocols used throughout the entire process is done by AI, so no data is ever read by human.

Question: With all of these prevention methods in place, will this planet be 100% impenetrable? Or, is there a single weakness that can be exploited?

posted almost 7 years ago

Stephen‭

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