Space Internet from ESA

Reliable Internet access for astronauts who are in a space station? And to control a vehicle on the surface or as far away as the planet Mars from a spacecraft in orbit around them? Are just some of the innovative technologies developed by the ESA for future missions in outer space. What do satellites observing the Earth with the astronauts who send images in real time from the International Space Station?

The answer is that we all send data back to Earth. The requirements for the transmission of information in space, however, expected to increase in coming years. In the future, vehicles on Mars and unmanned lunar bases will be guided by satellites placed in orbit around them. Astronauts will travel to asteroids, hundreds of millions of kilometers away from Earth, and will need to communicate with other astronauts, control centers and sophisticated systems which are fitted to the spacecraft. And all these activities require the coordination of a reliable and flexible network broadcast information.

 ” We consider that technical specifications devices such as mobile phones and laptops could be applied to a new generation of electronic devices diadiktyomenes , “says Nestor Peccia, responsible for software development manager for the terrestrial space missions in the European Centre for Space Business in Darmstadt, Germany. 

Since 1982, specialists of ESA, NASA and other space agencies and the wider space industry who staff the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) have met for the exploration of new development opportunities technical specifications for data transmission based on open source software. Developing software for the electronic equipment space missions and relay data between space agencies, commercial airlines and manufacturer of satellite systems is expected to be profitable in a short time. expected in the future, moreover, increasing requirements for transmission of data between satellites in orbit, and spacecraft should be able to communication options to each other through reliable radio channels, even if you roam around Mars at a speed of several thousand kilometers per hour. 

In May 2008, the mission of the ESA Mars Express has provided a critical node for transmitting information to and from spacecraft of NASA Phoenix during the landing and removal of the red planet. August will offer its services to a different mission of NASA, the Mars Science Laboratory. 

In December 2011, the network ground stations available to the ESA to detect satellites in orbit around the Earth offered daily at the center of the Russian mission control Phobos-Gruntpou was lost shortly after the launch of a window three hours of communication. In October, an astronaut on the International Space Station will attempt to remotely control an experimental vehicle which will be located in the Operations Centre of ESA, trying to simulate the conditions of communication between a vehicle on the surface of Mars and spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet. For this purpose a reliable telecommunication connection, so astronauts, robotic vehicles and control center can cooperate effectively with each other.

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Posted by Paracha on April 24, 2012. Filed under Articles, Technology, Web. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry