Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networks: New Internet Technology For Space

NASA Debuts New Internet Technology Aboard the ISS (+Video)

It can send data to other spacecraft or back to Earth much quicker.

Mariell Moon | June 22, 2016

The ISS has a new technology on board that can transmit data from space much faster than what NASA uses today. See, the internet as we know it here on Earth doesn't work as well for spacecraft millions of miles away. It requires all nodes or connection points on a network -- in space, these are satellites -- to be active at the same time to send information back to the ground team. Since that's not always possible due to the various elements that can block a connection, such as planets, other spacecraft, radiation, and so on and so forth, it takes a long time for data to make it back to Earth. In the worst cases, some data gets lost along the way. This new tech called Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) gets rid of those problems.

"The ongoing SCaN and AES efforts are complementary and result in a spiral evolution." Source: http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/scan/engineering/technology/txt_dtn.html

<more at https://www.engadget.com/2016/06/22/nasa-internet-tech-iss/; related articles and links: http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/scan/engineering/technology/txt_dtn.html (Disruption Tolerant Networking. March 24, 2014) and https://www.engadget.com/2008/11/19/nasas-interplanetary-internet-tests-a-success-vint-cerf-triump/ (NASA's interplanetary Internet tests a success, Vint Cerf triumphs again. November 19, 2008)>