No TCP/IP for NASA's deep space Internet

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 19 November 2008 02:12

Science - Space

A month-long series of experiments during October used NASA's Epoxi spacecraft  to provide a long round-trip for data.

Formerly known as Deep Impact, Epoxi is en route to a rendezvous with comet Hartley 2 in November 2010. Launched in January 2005, Epoxi has already had an encounter with comet Tempel 1.

Another part of its mission is to observe selected stars in the hope of finding evidence of additional exoplanets.

The DTN experiments successfully simulated communications between Earth-based mission-operations centres and Mars landers and orbiters.

The next scheduled test will see a DTN node on the International Space Centre next summer.

NASA officials say that DTN will make it far easier to support complex missions involving multiple landed, mobile and orbiting spacecraft, and it also could ensure reliable communications for astronauts on the surface of the Moon.

"This is the first step in creating a totally new space communications capability, an interplanetary Internet," said Adrian Hooke, NASA's manager of space-networking architecture, technology and standards.