[July 06, 2009] CU, NASA developing Internet in outer space Tweet Jul 06, 2009 (Daily Camera - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Researchers at the University of Colorado are working with NASA to extend Earth's Internet into outer space and across the solar system. The new technology dubbed "Disruption Tolerant Networking," or DTN, will allow NASA and other space agencies around the world to better communicate with international spacecraft fleets exploring the moon and Mars on future voyages. The technology is expected to lead to a working "Interplanetary Internet," said Kevin Gifford, a senior research associate at CU-Boulder's BioServe Space Technologies and a faculty member in the aerospace engineering sciences department. Up until now, communication between spacecraft and ground stations has been over a single point-to-point link, much like a walkie-talkie, Gifford said. Space operations teams must manually schedule each link and generate appropriate commands to specify where the data is to be sent, the time it will be sent and its destination. "As the number of spacecraft and links increase and the need to communicate between many space vehicles emerges, these manual operations become increasingly cumbersome and costly," he said. The new data communications protocols were installed on a BioServe payload known as the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus, or CGBA, on the International Space Station in May to send DTN messages known as "bundles," said Gifford. The new DTN "Bundle Protocol" was developed by the Internet Research Task Force based on initial work started a decade ago in a partnership between NASA and Vint Cerf, who holds the title of vice president and chief Internet evangelist of Google Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. Cerf often is referred to as one of the "fathers" of the Internet. To see more of the Daily Camera, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.thedailycamera.com./ Copyright (c) 2009, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]