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News & ArtsMonday, November 24, 2008
Teh Internets / Science Cyberspace in Space
Posted by Charles Mudede on Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 11:02 AM
Emerging from Earth:
NASA has finished its first deep-space test of what could become an 'interplanetary internet'. The new networking commands could one day be used to automatically relay information between Earth, spacecraft, and astronauts, without the need for humans to schedule transmissions at each point.Spacecraft usually communicate directly with Earth - the first to do so through an intermediary were the Mars Explorations Rovers, which launched in 2003. The Spirit and Opportunity rovers transmit data to orbiters, which then send the data back to Earth.
This deep-space test of an "interplanetary internet" may one day deep in the future be seen as a crucial moment for the emergence of something we in the now cannot foresee.
1
if only the interplanetary internet can turn out to be as useless as the internet we're all killing time on, now
3
Um, "something we cannot foresee"?
Chaz, the whole point of setting up this network is so that spacecraft - both manned and unmanned - will eventually have the ability to communicate with each other regardless of their location within the Solar System. Up to now, there no such "free routing capability" existed, and, as the article states, all communications and telemetry currently has to be transmitted directly to earth before being redirected elsewhere.
Oh, and before you get any other crazy notions, yes, this is still all governed by the Laws of Physics, so real-time communications from Jupiter, for example, are still going to take five or six hours one-way.
So, really, all of this is quite "foreseeable", I'd say.
Chaz, the whole point of setting up this network is so that spacecraft - both manned and unmanned - will eventually have the ability to communicate with each other regardless of their location within the Solar System. Up to now, there no such "free routing capability" existed, and, as the article states, all communications and telemetry currently has to be transmitted directly to earth before being redirected elsewhere.
Oh, and before you get any other crazy notions, yes, this is still all governed by the Laws of Physics, so real-time communications from Jupiter, for example, are still going to take five or six hours one-way.
So, really, all of this is quite "foreseeable", I'd say.
6
I don't know about you, but waiting years for outerspace pr0n to load is not my idea of fun ...
Oh, wait, I thought we were talking about the Internet - aren't we?
Oh, wait, I thought we were talking about the Internet - aren't we?
7
"Cannot Foresee"? Dude, Roddenberry came up with it 40 years ago. "Send a message to Starfleet via subspace communication."
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