NASA is trying to bring the ease of communication found within the Earth to the entire Solar System. To do this, the science agency is studying the movements within Space and making necessary changes to current systems. The experiments and studies will hopefully allow NASA and its astronauts to easily and efficiently communicate with each other, whether they are in space or on the ground.
As UPI explains, NASA has installed new software that makes communication much faster on the International Space Station (ISS). The communications protocol, which is called Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN), was added earlier this month.
DTN works using delay and disruption tolerant networks in order to send messages from ISS to the ground and vice versa. The delay in messages should be more reliable, especially because movements in space often interrupt signals and messages. The delay, in a way, will save these messages for when it is more stable to relay them.
The DTN is also NASA's first step towards having technology as advanced as internet up in Space. In fact as RCR Wireless News recalls, NASA has actually been conceptualizing the idea for a while. DTN was described as a "step toward building a reliable and interplanetary internet" in early 2015.
Disruption Tolerant Networking has been applied most recently to the Telescience Resource Kit. This is a software designed to perform much like Wi-Fi at home. It will receive and send data by packing and unpacking data values. It will transfer files and manage DTN nodes.
According to Vint Cerf, Google's chief internet evangelist and a regular visiting scientist at NASA, "Our experience with DTN on the space station leads to additional terrestrial applications, especially for mobile communications." This could mean that, once NASA perfects DTN and its connection to an interplanetary Internet system, that speaking and communicating with someone in space could be as easy as calling someone from another country or state.
