Birth of the Inter(planetary)net

November 24, 2008 —And you thought dial-up was slow. 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 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 delay in sending or receiving data takes between three-and-a-half to 20 minutes at the speed of light. "This is the first step in creating a totally new space communications capability, an interplanetary Internet," said Adrian Hooke, team lead and manager of space-networking architecture, technology and standards at NASA Headquarters in Washington. NASA and Vint Cerf, a vice president at Google Inc., partnered 10 years ago to develop this software protocol. The DTN sends information using a method that differs from the normal Internet's Transmission-Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or TCP/IP, communication suite, which Cerf co-designed. The Interplanetary Internet must be robust to withstand delays, disruptions and disconnections in space. Glitches can happen when a spacecraft moves behind a planet, or when solar storms and long communication delays occur. Unlike TCP/IP on Earth, the DTN does not assume a continuous end-to-end connection. In its design, if a destination path cannot be found, the data packets are not discarded. Instead, each network node keeps the information as long as necessary until it can communicate safely with another node. This means information does not get lost. Engineers began a month-long series of DTN demonstrations in October, transmitting data using NASA's Deep Space Network and its Epoxi spacecraft, which is on a mission to encounter Comet Hartley 2 in two years. In the next round of testing, the new DTN software will be loaded on board the International Space Station next summer. In the next few years, the Interplanetary Internet could enable many new types of space missions and could ensure reliable communications for astronauts on the surface of the moon, NASA reported.

NASA’s Deep Space Network currently consists of three deep-space communications facilities placed approximately 120 degrees apart around the world: at Goldstone, in California's Mojave Desert; near Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia. This strategic placement permits constant observation of spacecraft as the Earth rotates, and helps to make the DSN the largest and most sensitive scientific telecommunications system in the world. The Goldstone Complex is pictured here. Photo credit: NASA

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