Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Wi-Fi, Now Available On the ISS

Posted by timothy on from the shipping-not-included dept.

Grant Henninger writes "Rejoice! The next time you have an extra $20 million and decide to visit the International Space Station you won't need to leave the window to tell all your friends how cool it is. The ISS now has a new Wi-Fi network, so all you'll need to do is fire up Twitterrific and announce how much better you are than your Earth-based friends."

30 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. And we already know who is the ISP by Yvan256 · · Score: 4, Funny

    It has to be AT&T.

    Can't wait to see the bills on this one.

    1. Re:And we already know who is the ISP by moosesocks · · Score: 4, Informative

      Funny you should mention that.

      A /. article a few months ago found that sending a text message is about 4 times as expensive (per kilobyte) as retrieving data from the Hubble.

      --
      -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
    2. Re:And we already know who is the ISP by Prof.Phreak · · Score: 3, Funny

      sending a text message is about 4 times as expensive (per kilobyte) as retrieving data from the Hubble.

      Well then... given it's tax dollars, they probably implemented the wifi link via text messages :-)

      --

      "If anything can go wrong, it will." - Murphy

    3. Re:And we already know who is the ISP by Miamicanes · · Score: 4, Informative

      Actually, the latency between ISS and anywhere on earth should theoretically be no worse than roughly double the time it would take to make a trip halfway around the earth via fiber. Remember, geostationary satellites have latency issues because they're about 28,000 miles away from Earth. The ISS is only about 200 miles up... approximately the distance between Miami and Orlando, or Paris and London. The only reason I even factored in as much time as I did is the fact that ISS moves relative to the earth, so in order to avoid breaking TCP/IP and give it an apparent fixed IP route to the rest of the internet, all traffic to and from it would have to pass through a single network point somewhere (probably Houston), then be forwarded via fiber to an uplink somewhere within the ISS's line of sight at that moment. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if the ISS's internet connectivity actually is implemented using more or less off the shelf cellular data technology (using NASA's frequencies, with higher-power transceivers spaced further apart, but the same general idea as CDMA or GPRS data). Then again, to cut costs, they might very well have implemented internet connectivity on the ISS by just adding two or three tracking dishes to it, and using the same satellites as VSAT internet, which WOULD subject them to the same drawbacks as terrestrial customers. God, can you imagine the headlines if ISS ended up getting FAP'ed?!? :D

  2. War-orbiting by Tyger · · Score: 5, Funny

    Alright, who is going to be the first to start the new war-orbiting trend?

    I wonder if it is an unsecured wireless network. Does being far above anyone else who could access your wireless network count as security through obscurity?

    1. Re:War-orbiting by leviathan2k · · Score: 3, Funny

      I can imagine the chaps on SpaceShipTwo making a fly-by with a laptop, just for the sake of it.

    2. Re:War-orbiting by Cathoderoytube · · Score: 3, Funny

      I can only imagine. The ISS will get hit with a lawsuit by the RIAA because some freeloading college kids are accessing their network to download music.

      --
      I have nothing compelling to say
  3. The real reason by sleeponthemic · · Score: 3, Funny

    Fresh pron. (That one tattered penthouse they were allowed to bring up is starting to fall apart).

    --
    I record my sleeptalking
  4. So... by nightglider28 · · Score: 3, Funny

    New hobby: War-rocketing.

  5. Extra $20 million by bigtallmofo · · Score: 5, Funny

    The next time you have an extra $20 million...all you'll need to do is fire up Twitterrific and announce how much better you are than your Earth-based friends

    The next time I have an extra $20 million, I won't need Twitterific or even a visit to the ISS to let my friends know how much better I am than them. I'll hire people to follow my friends around town to let them know that fact on an hourly basis.

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
  6. NASA will probably cooperate by davidwr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You just know that NASA will probably cooperate with a stunt like this. Heck, they may even hold a contest for engineering students: "Who can be the first to ping our wifi network from a ground station and hold the signal from horizon to horizon?"

    Winning team gets a photo-op with NASA engineers, bragging rights, and job interviews when they graduate.

    Runners-up have to be content with $250 cash prize and a promise NASA will actually read their resumes.

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
    1. Re:NASA will probably cooperate by amdpox · · Score: 5, Funny

      I don't think a Pringles cantenna is going to be sufficient here... anyone got a spare grain silo laying around?

    2. Re:NASA will probably cooperate by zappepcs · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Actually, you might be wrong. As contests go, this would be fairly cool. There is some gear you can buy for telescopes that might do the trick. The ISS won't track across the sky in quite the same manner as a distant galaxy, but I'm sure it can be adapted to work. One cantenna might not be enough given the normal anomalies that plague people trying to communicate wirelessly through the atmosphere but then again, if you had several of them, spaced appropriately, all tracking the ISS you might be able to pull enough sig-2-noise to pull it off. I'm also reasonably certain that such arrays already exist, if configured slightly differently for different uses. It would be a good RF engineering project for colleges. 'more' is better, not bigger is better, in this case. I'd like to see this contest happen.

      --
      Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
    3. Re:NASA will probably cooperate by dfjunior · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Wouldn't the skin of the ISS function as a Faraday Cage and severely limit transmission of the Wi-Fi signal?

  7. No mention of internet connectivity by Workaphobia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There is nothing inherent in the phrase Wi-Fi that mandates that a network is Internet-connected. Indeed, nothing in the "article" suggests any access to the Internet from the station. This appears to just be an extension of their existing LAN.

    --
    Evidently, the key to understanding recursion is to begin by understanding recursion. The rest is easy.
  8. If I may suggest... by denzacar · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...a slight upgrade to your plan?

    Hire SUPERMODELS instead of mere "people".
    You can thank me for this small and yet brilliant upgrade by paying me a small sum of US$ 181829.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  9. Network Stumbler by DeadBugs · · Score: 5, Funny

    That would explain why every 90 minutes or so "ISS" pops up on my available networks and then promptly disappears.

    --
    http://www.kubuntu.org/
    1. Re:Network Stumbler by spaceman375 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Can I borrow your antenna?

      --
      On the one hand you take life too seriously, and on the other, you do not take playful existence seriously enough. Seth
  10. But you will have to speak Russian by bornwaysouth · · Score: 5, Funny

    I thought there are fears that once the Shuttles no longer service the ISS in 2010, then access to the ISS will be limited to nations that can say "Da, you can have Georgia" in Russian.

    So your friends will have to accept you talking through a Russian interpreter. This may well improve the conversation. I mean, how often can you say 'The earth is a blue and white ball' without getting boring. Whereas, a mistranslation such as 'Why on earth are your balls blue and white?' will at least help.

  11. Is it free? by snikulin · · Score: 5, Funny

    My 20 mil contract does not say anything about WiFi. Should I buy a cup of coffee to use it?

  12. wifi network ~= internet connection by catmistake · · Score: 3, Insightful

    contrary to what the summary suggests, wifi doesn't mean internet connection.

    --
    The Admin and the Engineer
  13. Re:China? by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hey, on the plus side it's pretty much the only thing available for wardrivers in the area.

  14. Sounds pretty cool but... by __aailob1448 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Shouldn't they have fiber by now?

    That's what they get for trusting the U.S telcos to deliver.

  15. Hmm, it'd be a stretch...but might be doable. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It looks like it might actually be possible to connect to ISS wifi from earth. The ISS is around 350km above the surface, and current records for surface to surface links are a little bit larger than that.

    The surface to surface number is for two custom endpoints, not one standard, one custom, doesn't have to deal with the ionosphere, and was between two stationary locations; but it suggests that the challenge isn't insurmountable. A radio astronomer could probably eat this one for breakfast.

  16. Re:Shit! by willyhill · · Score: 3, Funny

    Alternatively, it also means they're not running Ubuntu... since they got wireless capabilities... /thanksi'llbehereallweektrytheveal

    --
    The twitter monologues. Click on my homepage and be amazed.
  17. Hams regularly talk with the ISS.... by Ellis+D.+Tripp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    , which hosts an onboard amateur station using the callsign NA1SS:

    http://www.arrl.org/ARISS/

    Many of the astronauts have ham radio licenses.

    --
    Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
  18. First Message by PPH · · Score: 5, Funny

    To: Gfnnrzx
    From: Plftspnk
    Subject: New WiFi Hot Spot

    Hey dude! I was cruising thru the wasteland in my saucer and I found this great open hot spot. Its right near that crazy pile of junk orbiting planet Irth. Just pull up behind them, so they won't see your ship and you can log your laptop onto the Irth Internet and download lots of cool homosapien p0rn. Also, log onto this site called Slashdot and post something about welcoming alien overlords. They'll get a kick out of it.

    Later, dude.

    P.S.: What's a lap, anyway?

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:First Message by Kjella · · Score: 4, Funny

      Sure, why not. It was established already in Independence Day that aliens use IPv4, so they should just be able to hook right up.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    2. Re:First Message by slimjim8094 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Damnit, we're running out fast enough as it is!

      TEH ALIENS ARE GONNA STEAL ALL OUR ADDRESSSPACE!!! /doomsday

      --
      I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
  19. Re:Do they have an Internet connection? by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    you already can... get a ham license and a 2 meter radio and packet TNC.

    I send message to the astronauts on the ISS on a regular basis. you can leave a message in their TNC if they are not live chatting.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.