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Web Enabled Spacecraft

Posted by michael on from the fluffy-bunny-to-the-rescue dept.

gilgsn writes "Yahoo has an article from space.com about a satellite which will be operated by FTP over TCP/IP on the Internet! The CHIP (Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer) spacecraft will examine the stuff between stars, the so-called void of space that is actually rich with hot gas. The choice of protocol was dictated by economics. I wonder what OS it will run and if communications will be encrypted?"

6 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. Re:FTP and TCP/IP???? by sploxx · · Score: 5, Informative

    There'is actually a proposal for a "space internet" where long ping times, high data loss etc. occur.

    It is called "Interplanetary Internet SIG":
    http://www.ipnsig.org/home.htm

    So... they do not use the common TCP/IP things, but their networking principle is closely related to IP.

  2. Re:FTP!? by AaronLuz · · Score: 3, Informative

    FTP is used as a control protocol in plenty of environments. It's really quite simple. You upload one or more files with instructions in it. Then you upload a semaphore file to say your message is complete. The receiving end reads the directory every 10 seconds or so and starts processing when it sees the last file. I imagine that the satellite would return data instead of instructions, and then the process would repeat. The FTP protocol per se has nothing to do with controlling the satellite; it's all about using files as messages.

    I've seen credit card authorizations go through this way. UNIX and mainframe machines often exchange data this way when turn-around time is not important. I would assume NASA doesn't need to control the satellite second-by-second.

  3. Re:Bad ping times by arvindn · · Score: 3, Informative
    High latency is not a problem specific to the use of TCP. If you've got a high latency, you're stuck with it whatever mechanism you use because it's dictated by the speed of light.

    OTOH, doesn't TCP use alot of SYN, ACK etc. to establish/close a connection? This could be a problem because it multiplies the round trip time which could have been avoided by using a special purpose protocol.

    I'm also wondering if there would be a high error rate because of atmospheric disturbances and such. If so, TCP would be really useful because you get error correction for free.

  4. Re:MIPS computer with several OSs by fdisk3hs · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not sure why I'm not being modded up, but the link details all of the technical specs of OS and hardware, as well as the code and networking info. Shines quite a bit of light on the story... Surprised the original poster didn't look this far...

    LR

  5. Re:PING by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Informative

    amateur radio operatros can do this daily.

    I have "pinged" the dove sattelite at least 20 times in my life, Pinged and sent email to MIR, had a kind-of IRC chat with 2 different Space shuttle missions and have listened to my ping come back from the moon.

    ham radio, you get to do things that other only wish they could do.

    all of this was done at 144-148mhz with standard radio equipment and radio modem called a TNC. MIR was the easiest to contact.... moonbounce requires a friend with no wife and lots of money.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  6. Re:Wacky brit! by wackybrit · · Score: 3, Informative

    Hmm, did I hear my name called? :-)

    ~~

    By the way, this story is a dupe, and I don't think anyone else has called on it yet. It was posted several months ago under a topic of something like '.mars is coming.' and talked about how satellites around Mars would use TCP/IP.. just like, er, this article.

    --
    mogorific carpentry experiments