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Interplanetary Network (IPN) Tested

Posted by michael on from the token-ring dept.

CETS writes "Slim on detail but...USA Today reports of the first test of an Interplanetary Network. 'In a sign of cosmic communications to come, last week mission controllers sent signals to a Mars-orbiting European spacecraft, which relayed the instructions to NASA's Spirit rover on the surface, and a signal was returned to Earth back along the same path.'" NASA also has a press release.

3 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. NASA Contumues to ... by Zordas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    get people excited about space exploration. I for one am overwellmed by the string of success. Heck .. I even have NASA TV constantly running on my computer just so I don't miss a press release and to lean more about the rovers. Previously we were limited to bot's being in a "Direct line of sight" with Earth to transmit data. Now with the IPN we can get data faster and more often. KUDO's to NASA and the ESA for great job !

  2. Not really by mlyle · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The bulk of data coming back from the Mars Exploration Rovers comes back through relay sessions through the Mars Odyssey and the Mars Global Surveyor satellites. The orbiters are simply much closer to the rovers than Earth is, the path loss is less, and so the data rates are much higher... and the satellites have direct visibility of earth for much longer and much higher EIRPs to talk to earth with.

    A couple of weeks ago they tried the first "interplanetary network" where the sessions were up "live", rather than store and forward.

    The really big advantage of this is they'll be able to command the rovers in near-realtime and get answers back right away for much more of the day than direct to earth communications is possible. And with 3 communications satellites above Mars, they are likely to have quite a few communications windows. Expect them to be fairly risk adverse, though, and for it to be several weeks before this is included in their operations.

  3. Submitter misread news article and release by benh57 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    The news article and the press release noted that this was the first INTERNATIONAL interplanetary network, IE, NASA Rover -> ESA Satellite -> NASA ground station. Read it again, guys. That was the whole point, that ESA was involved for the first time.

    Orbiting networks via NASA Rover -> NASA Sat -> NASA ground have been done repeatedly since the rovers landed well over a month ago.