Internet in space!

[scorpion 0]

Internet in space!

 

Please help! I am a newbie, and I cannot see my cameras from my Mars colony!

 

Internet breaches the final frontier

 

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/87654,the-internet-breaches-the-final-frontier.aspx

 

 

Internet creator looks to the stars for his next project.

Vint Cerf, co-creator of the Internet and a Google vice president, says he’s designing new protocols for a strong space-communication network, modeled on the internet here on Earth.

 

Years ago, Cerf was the man who designed the networking protocols which launched the whole net phenomenom. But now the internet guru is reaching for the moon, positing it’s about time a proper working communication system was launched into space, ridding the space exploration industry of costly, non reusable point-to-point radio links, which inhibit interoperability and that have to be made specifically for every mission.

 

To this aim, Cerf has teamed up with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Washington DC based MITRE Corporation, a not-for-profit national technology resource on a project dubbed the Interplanetary Internet.

 

The project, to develop communication standards and technical specs which can support rich networking in space, will be tested on the International Space Station (ISS) next year. If that goes well, Cerf hopes space missions will be designed to use the protocols as early as 2010.

 

In an interview with MIT’s Technology Review, Cerf notes the primary difficulties in building such a network include distance-induced delays and the rotation of the planets, causing disruption in communication lines.

 

To deal with these issues, Cerf says the project is developing a delay- and disruption-tolerant networking system [DTN] which uses store-and-forward methods - routing data through hosts which store it until communications can be established - similar to TCP/IP in design.

 

"Using the DTN bundle protocol allows us to design more-complex mission configurations involving many devices on the surface of planets and in orbit around them," says Cerf, who adds he expects standard TCP/IP protocols would be used on the surface of planets and in spacecraft, while DTN protocols would be reserved for interplanetary distance communications.

 

The project is not without security concerns, however, and Cerf notes great pains were taken to build defenses into the basic design so that each bundle-aware node would be able to identify any other nodes it's communicating with.

 

"We will be using strong authentication methods, cryptographic communication methods, to ensure that the parties that are using the resources are authorised to do so," says Cerf, explaining how nodes could refuse to forward data from any nodes that it doesn’t recognise.

 

Cerf reckons that someday soon, the network could even link manned and robotic spacecraft becoming the basis for a galaxy-wide communications system.

Edited December 13, 2008 by Guest

[Khandurian 0]

Ahhh... Space... The final frontier!

 

Spock damnit! I need answer and dont tell me it's illogical!

[RickA 0]

Beam me up Scotty, but take Scorpion first to make sure it is safe!!!!

[scorpion 0]

After I land I will pull a giant potted cactus over the landing spot for you to land in!

[RickA 0]

If you land, might materialize in space, and I am not going to the same place you are... DUH!!!!

[scorpion 0]

When I get the chance I will put your coordinates to the inside of a bottle!

[RickA 0]

That's a different show. and better lookin too. "I Dream of Jeannie", I would have joined her in the bottle.

[mr.surveillance 0]

Jeannie was a hotty in her day.

Don't mean to ruin yours but Barbara Eden turned 74 in August.

[RickA 0]

Yeah, but for 74 she is not bad, course I am almost the same age, and going for some of the younger ones would not be good for my health.

[scorpion 0]

RickA!

 

You are not in your 70s!!

 

If you are then WOW you look good for your age!!

 

What do you eat yogurt, and tofu?

[RickA 0]

Not quite yet but getting close will be 60 next June, which means when Barb Eden was 28, I was 14.

[sw 0]

Vint Cerf?

 

I thought Al Gore invented the Internet. I'm so confused now.