ISS Launches First Permanent Node of "Interplanetary Internet"

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.

"Permanent"???

[Jane Q. Public]

Uh... sorry. But NASA's plans for the ISS, or anything like it at this time, are hardly "permanent".

If you want them to be, get off your butts and tell that to the Whitehouse and your Congresscritters. Because they obviously don't know.

Do we really need the Internet on the ISS?

[defireman]

If experience on Slashdot has taught me anything, having the Internet on ISS is a bad idea. The astronauts will spend half the time surfing the Internet instead of running 'scientific experiments'.

.. or downloading the latest Michael Jackson DVDs for a hands on tutorial of the 'Moonwalk'.

What?

[ledow]

Sorry, I don't see how this technology and "using the Internet" are at all related.

It's a store-and-forward technology designed to allow interruptions of seconds, days, weeks, months, etc. in communication. How does that relate to the modern Internet or being able to "post on Twitter"? What you're saying is that I can request a webpage and (via suitable protocol-translation at some gateway presumably back on Earth) eventually my request will be sent - TCP handshaking is out of the window, timeouts will defeat login attempts, etc. What this actually *might* be is a very, very delay-tolerant email setup... we have one of those... it's called "retry and exponential backoff". This assumes *so* much it's unbelievable and basically tries to plant real-time TCP web traffic in the same category as "send this message to Earth, I don't care when it arrives".

Are the public seriously that stupid that even this mildly technical article has to be related to Twitter in order for people to understand it (erroneously)?

Re:"Permanent"???

[owlstead]

Permanent is relative. It may be permanent compared to the time ISS will stay in space from the moment they install the node. In the end, of course, nothing is completely permanent compared to the time left to the universe - unless it disappears suddenly.

Re:Cool protocol.. but sounds a bit familiar...

[ae1294]

This does not belong in the kernel.

Have you looked at the .config file lately? THERE is A LOT that shouldn't be in the kernel..