With multiple satellites in space, an international space station under construction, and a roving lander on Mars (albeit one that has gone to sleep for the winter), there is getting to be enough gear in space that the idea of a "space Internet" makes perfect sense. But how does information get transmitted effectively over such vast distances?
Since no one has invented faster-than-light travel yet, scientists at NASA who are busy building the Deep Space Internet -- which just had its first successful test -- had to modify the way the Internet currently works.
The challenge is dealing with gaps in distance that can cause delays of up to 20 minutes or more between connections, even if everything is working as it should (which in space can be a gamble).
Research on the issue has been going on for awhile, some of it with the help of Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf, the co-developer of the TCP/IP protocol, which underpins all communication on the Internet. Cerf helped develop the protocol that the Deep Space Network uses. Research into the best ways to handle long delays in communications on a computer network has also been done in various remote places on Earth (including a project involving reindeer herders in Lapland).
The Internet as it exists now isn't designed for outer-space distances. We're used to almost instantaneous responses from mail servers, Web services, and Websites, thanks to the use of proxy servers and high-bandwidth connections. So to create the space-age Internet protocol, NASA scientists went back to the earliest days of the Internet, when it was just a few computers hooked up together at various universities as part of a research project funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (now the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).
Much like the Internet then -- which most of the researchers called the ARPAnet -- the space data network that NASA is currently working on consists of just 10 nodes: One is a research satellite that is 20 million miles away (and was the target node in the recent successful demonstration), and the rest are Earth-based computers pretending to be Mars-based research units, along with cameras and other equipment.
This network is designed around what is known as DTN -- which used to stand for "delay-tolerant networking," but is now used to mean "disruption-tolerant networking." DTN enables a network that can continue to function just as the Internet does now, even if signals aren't received from certain parts of the network for 20 minutes or more.
Certain protocols on the Internet function in a similar "store and forward" way now -- email servers that use SMTP, for example, will continue to try and send email messages repeatedly over a period of days if a server is offline, until delivery is confirmed -- but the space network was designed to do this on a permanent basis, and with all kinds of data.
In honor of the early pioneers of the Internet, one of the NASA researchers told MSNBC that the first data transmission on the beta version of this interplanetary network was a picture of a sketch that engineer Steve Crocker did in 1969 of the ARPAnet, with its four servers.
The second transmission was an image of networking pioneer J.C.R. Licklider, who came up with the idea of an "intergalactic computer network," a dream that eventually helped spawn what became the Internet.
Now it seems the Internet may return the favor.
— Mathew Ingram, technology writer for The Globe and Mail in Canada
if a web-page is a cluttered mess i will not take the time to hunt through it for what I am looking for.
Issue #2 MOVEMENT
if the web page has anything on it that moves it makes itself anoying
Issue #3 SCALING
If the layout uses absolute spacing instead of relative such that slider bars are needed,-- or if the type font fails to adjust to the browser setting then the page gets marked down 10 points.
GOOGLE has applied these concepts magnificently and we have an awful lot of page designers who need to go take GOOGLE's 101 Introduction to Proper Web page Design & LayoutIf Some designers try to use a web page like a TVand they get a F for doing that.
We have discussed the most beautiful cell phones here. It is more difficult to discuss the most beautiful websites because of the many self-promoting web design sites out there.
One of the best websites I have ever visited is NASA website. The highest quality web page which accumulates knowledge of modern science about the space, allows access the rare documentary materials, such as interview with Alan Shepard, presents the full historical overview of development of space shuttles and other technique.
There is also one web page where information about recent researches in the space and cooperation among countries towards investigation of the Universe, especially between the Russian Federation and the United States of America, is presented.
Thanks Mathew and Statistician especially for the links to the NASA website. It's homepage is probably worth a visit for every Internet user, very uplifting, and particularly nice the Thanksgiving in space images!
Fitting images for an exciting new phase of Internet evolution!
Great post! Intrenet has taken another important step and has brighten that were once crazy imaginations of making colony at mars and moon etc. We Still need a more sophisticated structure and platform to realize the dreams of conquering the space but it is indeed very exciting. Lets hope that this success will lead us to the dream that has been projected by many fictions, movies novels.
You make excellent points on how to expand the knowledge base for our space programs and link artificial intelligence with the learning that can come for the use in space of the internet. Our knowledge of space is truly a learning experience that knows no boundaries.
I worked for Martin Marietta during the space program and have visited JPL and marvel at the designs for artificial intelligence. Linking that with open information exchange to extend its reach and scope will enrich the value of the space program and the commercial benefits that come from it.
Since the time Yuri Gagarin was the first man to visit the outer space (April 12, 1961) and Neil Armstrong made the step on the base of the moon (July 20, 1969), the technologies of the research of the Universe have been constantly modified and improved by the scholars all over the world. More and more functions are done nowadays by computers and implementation of artificial intelligence for data transmission from space (“Artificial intelligence”, 2008). Moreover, Universe researchers are reaching new step. Noles, Scott, Zukoski, Weiss concluded that future orbiting sensor constellations will consist often, hundreds, or even thousands of spacecraft, each capable of generating enormous amounts of data ( n.d.). Each station will be whizzing around the solar system at different speeds in different orbits, separated by distances that take radio signals anywhere from a few seconds to tens of hours to cross ( Clark,1999). Furthermore,Leigh Torgerson, manager of the DTN Experiment Operations Center at JPL points out that "in space today, an operations team must manually schedule each link and generate all the commands to specify which data to send, when to send it, and where to send it ( as citied in Dwayne, Trinidad , Borja, 2008). Finally, today’s computers have to deal with a huge amount of incoming information. The technical limit defining the rate of transmission of digital data has been achieved, so while part of information is being processed, the other part of it may be lost or become out of date. For the scientific purposes, it is important that the information will be saved and transmitted on another source or on the same station in a definite time, which can be reached by usage of Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN). Thus, usage of Internet for the purposes of investigation of the Galaxy will have a positive impact on the development of our knowledge about the Universe and there are three main reasons which support the idea. Firstly, information from all satellites and space devices will be send on the base of Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN) protocol which allows transmitting data multiple times without loss of it. Secondly, astronauts will no longer be anxious about the synchronization of information transmitting and receiving. Thirdly, development of the Internet technology accompanied by the discoveries in the sphere of artificial intelligence will allow computers to carry out researches without the human control with transmitting information to the Earth station, which, in its turn will allow astronauts to concentrate on the goal of their research.
"Get the kids (and the grown-ups for that matter) off the couch, send them outside and let them absorb some of that "stuff" we call sunlight and fresh air."
Right, hbetts3. Many of us seems to be forgetting that there is still life beyond cyberspace. Just like waht I have stated in another comment the Internet has provided us with opportunities to extend friendship accross the globe but at same time somehow damaged our ability to interact with our neighhbors (and for some even family). The Internet has somehow provided an opportunity to live some kind of existence that we wish to portray and not who we really are.
Perhaps getting some sunlight could bring back the appreciation for "real" life and make us realize that the Internet, and all other technological advancements, are just tools which importance is far from the essence of the air that we breath.
Well, yes. However, the technology would somehow become perfected already when that Star Trek like era ushers in. As of now we can just hope that NASA has some people trying to work out all the necessary details to make this cyberspace into outer space venture.
Well, almost instantaneously, electrons, radio waves, light pulses still only move at the speed of light. Remember those Star Trek episodes when the Enterprise was doomed and they were going to send the ship's log to Star Fleet Command and the transmission was going to take two weeks to get in?
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