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<H1>NASA test new 'space internet' protocols on ISS</H1>
<P><FONT face=Verdana>The <STRONG>University of Colorado</STRONG> at Boulder is
working with NASA to develop a new communications technology now being tested on
the International Space Station (ISS), which will extend Earth's Internet into
outer space and across the solar system.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana>Called <STRONG>Disruption Tolerant Networking</STRONG>, or
DTN, the new technology will enable NASA and other space agencies around the
world to better communicate with international fleets of spacecraft that will be
used to explore the moon and Mars in the future. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana>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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana>"<STRONG>Communication between spacecraft and ground
stations has traditionally been over a single point-to-point link, much like a
walkie-talkie</STRONG>," said Gifford. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana>"Currently, 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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana>"<STRONG>Highly automated future communications
capabilities will be required for lunar habitation and surface exploration that
include passing information between orbiting relay satellites, lunar and
planetary habitats and astronauts on the surface,</STRONG>" said Gifford.
</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana>"<STRONG>But existing Internet protocols, where Internet
hosts and computers are always connected, do not work well for many space-based
environments, where intermittently connected operations are
common</STRONG>."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana> </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana>Read the full story at<BR></FONT><A
href="http://www.colorado.edu/news/r/fc2791d60f1469b60cd846b779a9dc56.html"
target=_blank><FONT
face=Verdana>http://www.colorado.edu/news/r/fc2791d60f1469b60cd846b779a9dc56.html</FONT></A></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>