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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. Store anf forward.. could it be... by strangeattraction · · Score: 2, Interesting

    email re-inventerd?

    1. Re:Store anf forward.. could it be... by corsec67 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Pigeons in space... I need to say no more.

      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.

      --
      If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
  2. Re:very exciting by jd · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It would be nice if there were packet drivers for the protocol for Linux, NetBSD and NS-3 (the current network simulator). This would allow people to get a good feel for the behaviour of the new protocol, which may have uses beyond deep space. (It is possible to imagine real-world networks on Planet Earth where the characteristics of the network compare with inter-satellite communications.) Besides, would you rather Europe's answer to GPS use Windows?

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  3. Beat me to it. by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 3, 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-)

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way