Interplanetary Internet Used To Control Robot On Earth From Space

An experimental version of an interplanetary Internet was recently used to successfully control a rover on the Earth from the International Space Station. The experiment, done by NASA and the ESA, used the Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) protocol to transfer messages and to demonstrate the technology that will eventually lead to Internet-like communications between space vehicles and support habitats or infrastructure on other planets or in deep space.

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“Space station Expedition 33 commander Sunita Williams in late October used a NASA-developed laptop to remotely drive a small LEGO robot at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. The European-led experiment used NASA’s DTN to simulate a scenario in which an astronaut in a vehicle orbiting a planetary body controls a robotic rover on the planet’s surface.”

“The demonstration showed the feasibility of using a new communications infrastructure to send commands to a surface robot from an orbiting spacecraft and receive images and data back from the robot,” said Badri Younes, deputy associate administrator for space communications and navigation at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The experimental DTN we’ve tested from the space station may one day be used by humans on a spacecraft in orbit around Mars to operate robots on the surface, or from Earth using orbiting satellites as relay stations.”


These standardized communications similar to the Internet are able to function over the very long distances and associated time delays thanks to the unique DTN architecture. These abilities are necessary in order for the control of rovers or other vehicles from orbit or deep space spacecraft. “The core of the DTN suite is the Bundle Protocol (BP), which is roughly equivalent to the Internet Protocol (IP) that serves as the core of the Internet on Earth. While IP assumes a continuous end-to-end data path exists between the user and a remote space system, DTN accounts for disconnections and errors. In DTN, data move through the network ‘hop-by-hop.’ While waiting for the next link to become connected, bundles are temporarily stored and then forwarded to the next node when the link becomes available.”

“NASA’s work on DTN is part of the agency’s Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) Program. SCaN coordinates multiple space communications networks and network support functions to regulate, maintain and grow NASA’s space communications and navigation capabilities in support of the agency’s space missions.”

This new ability is the result of NASA’s initiative to develop a new wave of technology to allow deep space and interplanetary human exploration.

Source: NASA

Image Credits: ISS via Wikimedia Commons

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