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NASA Tests Deep-Space Network Modeled On the Internet
Posted by
kdawson
on Tue Nov 18, 2008 08:31 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
DRM (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I've just copyrighted the term subcasting.
Re:DRM (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, but while you guys were talking about that, I trademarked Subcasting (TM).
Parent
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: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
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
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, 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
Yay! (Score:3, Funny)
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
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 ?!?
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: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:3, Funny)
African, European, or Alien swallows?
(assuming that the airspeed velocity is irrelevant here...)
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.