Communications of the ACM
Nasa Explores Network to Sustain Large Data Dumps, Space Travel
NASA has issued a Request for Information to begin planning the architecture for future space communication and navigation.
Credit: Network World
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is studying what technology will be needed after 2022 in order to support future space communication and navigation, and recently issued a Request for Information (RFI) to begin planning for such a new architecture.
The RFI says the new network "shall also consider future science missions with greatly increased sensitivity of sensors that are capable of large data captures as well as future missions to the Moon and Mars where surface activities require supporting communications." The architecture also must be flexible to meet the changing needs between investments in operations and development, and it must be affordable as well as sustainable within a flat or decreasing budget environment.
Last November, NASA collaborated with the European Space Agency to successfully test an experimental version of an interplanetary Internet to control a robot on the ground in Germany from a laptop onboard the International Space Station (ISS). That test relied on NASA's Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) protocol to transmit messages between the ISS and the robot. NASA says DTN technology is designed to enable Internet-like communications between space vehicles and infrastructure on another planet.
From Network World
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