Interplanetary Internet phones home

IT’S ABOUT TIME a proper working communication system was launched into space, and NASA has finally confirmed it has carried out a successful first test of a deep space communications network modeled on the terrestrial Internet.

The space agency worked closely with Vint Cerf, big daddy of the Internet and a Google Veep, to come up with a software protocol, which could withstand delays, disruptions and the disconnections typically experienced in space. Or the British railway system.

Boffins from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory used Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN) software, which sends information using a different method to the earth’s Internet's Transmission-Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) communication suite.

DTN doesn’t assume a continuous end-to-end connection like TCP/IP does, which is useful because space craft and planets are constantly moving, and when a spacecraft is behind a planet, communication can be disrupted or delayed.

But this way, if information tries to get through but a destination path isn’t immediately found, the data packets aren’t just discarded, they’re kept by each network node until they can be passed on by another node. Basically, the information is always eventually delivered.

The system was tested by sending space images back and forth between NASA spacecraft and earth, over distances of some 32.4 million kilometers.

Adrian Hooke, NASA's manager of space-networking architecture, technology and standards noted "This is the first step in creating a totally new space communications capability, an interplanetary Internet".

This new interplanetary Internet will be vital in ridding the space exploration industry of costly, non reusable point-to-point radio links, which inhibit interoperability and which have to be made specifically for every mission. It might even allow for new types of space missions and flights involving multiple spacecraft, allowing for reliable, trusty communications between astronauts and controllers.

Currently there are 10 nodes set up in the early interplanetary network, including one on the Epoxi spacecraft. NASA says a test of DTN software loaded on board the International Space Station will take place next summer. µ

L'Inq
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