Tags: European Space Agency, NASA, Space Communications, Internet Protocol
Publication: Space.com
Publication Date: 11/09/2012

Meteron Operations and Communications Prototype (Mocup) test robot in ESA’s European Space Operations Centre, Darmstadt, Germany, successfully controlled from the ISS. Image credit: ESA

A new prototype system developed by NASA and ESA hints at the possibility of Internet-like communications between robots sent to other planets and Earth. The experiment, called Disruption Tolerant Networking protocol (DTN), allowed an astronaut aboard the ISS to control a small LEGO robot in German soil.

This experiment opens the possibility of using new communications infrastructure to receive images and data from a robot on another planet’s surface using satellites as relay stations between the robot and Earth. Additionally, scientists are thinking about the possibility of having astronauts orbit around a planet like Mars, controlling the robot from the spacecraft, opening new possibilities for exploring the planet.

DTN’s core is the Bundle Protocol (BP), similar to the Internet Protocol (IP). The main difference is that IP requires a seamless data path from end to end, while BP accounts for disconnections, glitches and errors, common in deep-space communications.

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