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NASA Tests Deep-Space Network Modeled On the Internet

Posted by kdawson on 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."

4 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. very exciting by qw0ntum · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is very exciting, not only because of its utility in space, but because of its utility on Earth as well. Particularly in areas with unreliable internet service, delay-tolerant protocols can be extremely helpful for allowing basic connectivity to the outside world. Consider the choice is having no internet communications at all versus waiting a day or two for your email to travel out of your village, onto the passing truck that is caching data, and into the city where it can proceed through a reliable internet connection. DTN is powerful stuff.

    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.

    --
    'Every story, if continued long enough, ends in death.' --Ernest Hemingway
    1. Re:very exciting by amirulbahr · · 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.

  2. Re:DRM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A word is not copyrightable.

  3. bollocks by mofag · · 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