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NASA Tests Deep-Space Network Modeled On the Internet
Posted by
kdawson
on Tue Nov 18, 2008 07:31 PM
from the here-hold-this dept.
from the here-hold-this dept.
hcg50a writes "NASA has successfully tested the first deep space communications network modeled on the Internet. Working as part of a NASA-wide team, engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, used software called Disruption-Tolerant Networking, or DTN, to transmit dozens of space images to and from a NASA science spacecraft located about 20 million miles from Earth. The store-and-forward protocol was designed by NASA in consultation with Vint Cerf. Here's a discussion from last July before the test began."
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ISS Launches First Permanent Node of "Interplanetary Internet" 121 comments
schliz writes "Researchers developing the 'Interplanetary Internet' have launched its first permanent node in space via a payload aboard the International Space Station. The network is based on a new communications protocol called Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN). It will be tested heavily this month, and could give astronauts direct Internet access within a year. The Interplanetary Internet is the brainchild of Vint Cerf ('father of the Internet'), among others. Last year, NASA tested the technology on the Deep Impact spacecraft." Update: 07/13 20:01 GMT by KD : If by "permanent" we mean seven years.
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Imagine... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Imagine... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
their first message (Score:2, Funny)
5th post
DRM (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I've just copyrighted the term subcasting.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
A word is not copyrightable.
Re:DRM (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, but while you guys were talking about that, I trademarked Subcasting (TM).
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Store anf forward.. could it be... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Store anf forward.. could it be... (Score:4, Informative)
With space you have no internet (i.e. road) and TTLs are too high to use the same technology we use here.
You might think so, but it *has* been shown to work. I mean, don't tell me you never heard of the pigeon [cnet.com] protocol [ietf.org]?
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Pigeons in space... I need to say no more.
Re:Store anf forward.. could it be... (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, if you throw them in the right direction with the right velocity...
Assuming you don't have to enter or exit any atmospheres, it could work. The catching site would be messy, and would give Mike Rowe an excuse to go into space.
It would just be a "dead pigeon" protocol.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
I have just patented a method of transferring data between planets, wherein a party at location A launches a carrier pigeon with a message attached, and a party at location B has a giant baseball mitt to catch the pigeon.
And if that doesn't work out, I am copyrighting my list of ingredients for my Finger-Licking Fried Pigeon recipe...
Re: (Score:2)
Nah, Swallows would be better. They can hold larger packets. Up to a certian size, they can just grip it by the husk, after that, it just takes two of 'em with the packet on a line.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
African, European, or Alien swallows?
(assuming that the airspeed velocity is irrelevant here...)
Re: (Score:2)
Whereas imagine e-mail being a train car, and TCP/IP (i.e. internet) being the railroad tracks.
That's confusing. Can you rewrite that as a car analogy?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
why do you assume e-mail means TCP/IP?
i guess you don't remember UUCP? yep, that was a store-and-forward protocol, which evolved into a 'network of networks' working to get e-mail and netnews before the Internet.
Designed to survive galactic warfare... (Score:2, Funny)
...and route around event horizons.
very exciting (Score:5, Insightful)
It really kills me when people dismiss developments in space programs as being too far removed (no pun intended) from the rest of us to be relevant.
Remember FIDONet (Score:5, Informative)
We already have a working _global_ _worldwide_ _free_ network based on store-and-forward protocols.
It's called FIDONet. It's almost dead now, but it was very alive during early 90-s before the advent of cheap Internet.
Kids...
Parent
Re:Remember FIDONet (Score:5, Funny)
We already have a working _global_ _worldwide_ _free_ network based on store-and-forward protocols.
It's called FIDONet. It's almost dead now, but it was very alive during early 90-s before the advent of cheap Internet.
Kids...
We shall, respectfully, remove ourselves from your lawn.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
I was about to say the same thing - FIDONet, RIME, etc... etc... Store-and-forward message networks are old hat. NASA is just late to the 'everything must be web-enabled' party.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
We already have a working _global_ _worldwide_ _free_ network based on store-and-forward protocols.
It's called FIDONet. It's almost dead now, but it was very alive during early 90-s before the advent of cheap Internet.
Kids...
The best thing is if NASA used FIDONet think of the money they'd save by only sending messages to Deep Space at 3am when the tolls are cheapest!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
UUCPNet, Pathalias, and the UUCP Mapping Project.
Kids, indeed.
--
ihnp4!stolaff!bungia!foundln!john
Beat me to it. (Score:4, Interesting)
UUCPNet, Pathalias, and the UUCP Mapping Project.
Kids, indeed.
I still have several names registered with the UUCP Mapping Project as of their shutdown (freezing the namespace).
Some of them still exchange mail via UUCP, too. Both with each other and the rest of the net. B-)
(In fact one of those rest-of-the-net links was down for a while and came back up right after McColo was cut off. B-> )
= = = =
Running mailing lists with a periodic UUCP link in the path has an additional side-effect: It limits the traffic explosion from mail loops that are not detected to a manageable volume, giving the admin time to shut down the offending address.
= = = =
I understand that UUCP mailnet is ALREADY in use in Africa in a very interesting form:
- Villages have a WiFi-enabled machine to exchange mails and files with the outside world.
- The local mail carrier has a bicycle with a WiFi-enabled, battery-powered machine with a decently large disk.
- As he cycles from village to village the bike-mounted machine associates with the local machine and UUCP does its usual magic, transferring mail, files, and download requests. (Don't know if they also run netnews groups on it...
- One of the machines on his route has internet connectivity and transfers the mail, files, and download requests to the rest of the world.
All with legacy protocols doing what they always did. And he doesn't even have to stop pedaling. B-)
Parent
UUCP over IP (Score:2)
From /etc/services:
Still works if you've got UUCP neighbors configured.
Re: (Score:2)
I am already behind on my mandatory
20+ option on the poll tonight.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Same problem :)
I'm seriously thinking about FireFox extension which will stop opening new Wikipedia links after 20-30 minutes of reading Wikipedia pages.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, FIDONet is the name of the network (like Internet).
There are standard protocols in FIDO, like in Internet. They are specified by FidoNet Technical Standards Committee documents (http://ftsc.org/docs/) . All FIDONet nodes must implement a minimal subset of specifications to receive direct netmail.
In practice, FIDO worked over any media capable of file transfer. I received my echomail with a custom 2400-bps modem from radio _broadcasts_.
Good times...
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Disruption Tolerant Network protocols certainly have a place in ad-hoc wireless networks where bit-error rates are high and link outages are common.
One of the drawbacks of a DTN is the fact that intermediate nodes require greater complexity and memory for the store-and-forward.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:very exciting (Score:4, Funny)
The rest of the post will come within the hour. Or maybe next week.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
The rest of the post will come within the hour. Or maybe next week.
My thoughts exactly. I can imagine that by 'next week' the spam would be out of date and the links already dead.
Re: (Score:2)
Read your post again, and instead of EMAIL, think A LETTER IN AN ENVELOPE.
Or, were you actually being so awesomely sarcastic that I've missed it as well?
Yay! (Score:3, Funny)
Finally (Score:2, Funny)
Revenge will be mine!
Re: (Score:2)
until they market their poetry sessions with free samples in every email.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Who knows? They may be interested in a Russian wife.
bollocks (Score:4, Insightful)
Deep space my arse! Its just space. We've not even stepped out of our own little planet-moon system yet and we think we want to start using up space-faring superlatives. Morons! Soon the term deep-space will be about as meaningful as artificial intelligence (assuming deep-space was ever a meaningful term in the first place). If this system is for "deep-space" then what will we call a communication protocol that works well between stars?
Anyone in marketing, kill yourself! - Bill Hicks
Re:bollocks (Score:5, Funny)
then what will we call a communication protocol that works well between stars
Interstellar?
Parent
Re:bollocks (Score:4, Funny)
I think Microsoft may have been considering the scope of this problem for a long time. They stopped the hubristic practice of naming "guaranteed unique" identifiers as UUIDs (Universally Unique IDentifiers) and started referring to them as GUIDs (Globally Unique IDentifiers.)
Why would they change horses in the middle of the race, with all the expense of changing documentation, supporting two naming systems, and all of the resultant confusion, unless there was a reason to not refer to them as "Universal"?
OK, maybe it's because they were trying to "embrace, extend, and extinguish" the RFC defining UUIDs. But I'd prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt, and say that they were "forward thinking", looking at the problems of networking in space.
BWA HA HA HA! Sorry, I couldn't keep a straight face for that last bit.
Parent
It's time to hack the ISS (Score:2)
So all the displays on the space station have in large print this message displayed:
ALL OF THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE.
That would be fun.
Searching Doom 3 servers... (Score:5, Funny)
CLANWARS_PUBLIC#1 LAVAPIT-BIG UDP 56
LOL-GIBBERISHED OH!NOSHIT_ctf UDP 68
PLAYTIME.DOT.UK DM_HOLYGROUNDS UDP 254
FRAGFEST_REDPLANET DM_HELLHOLE UDP 2,139,442
Ping of 2 MILLION? WTF ?!?
Ping ? (Score:2)
Oh noes !
We slashdotted Mars !
Security? Authentication? Privacy? Anonymity? (Score:2)
I see no mention of these measures, and am not amused by this ridiculous lack of foresight if in fact they are omitted. These need to be present from the start, not attempted to tack on later.
It would be much easier for anybody to spy on backbone communications in this giant wireless system than what we currently have with wired backbones.
Secret Identity? (Score:2)
Ever notice that you never see Al Gore and Vint Cerf in the same place.