>BOOST O2 >> NASA sets her sight to the Near FUTURE

>

NASA Selects Three Science Investigations For Future Key Planetary Mission

NASA has selected three science investigations from which it will pick one potential 2016 mission to look at Mars’ interior for the first time; study an extraterrestrial sea on one of Saturn’s moons; or study in unprecedented detail the surface of a comet’s nucleus.
Each investigation team will receive $3 million to conduct its mission’s concept phase or preliminary design studies and analyses. After another detailed review in 2012 of the concept studies, NASA will select one to continue development efforts leading up to launch. The selected mission will be cost-capped at $425 million, not including launch vehicle funding.
NASA’s Discovery Program requested proposals for spaceflight investigations in June 2010. A panel of NASA and other scientists and engineers reviewed 28 submissions. The selected investigations could reveal much about the formation of our solar system and its dynamic processes. Three technology developments for possible future planetary missions also were selected.

“NASA continues to do extraordinary science that is re-writing textbooks. Missions like these hold great promise to vastly increase our knowledge, extend our reach into the solar system and inspire future generations of explorers.”-NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

The planetary missions selected to pursue preliminary design studies are:

Geophysical Monitoring Station (GEMS) would study the structure and composition of the interior of Mars and advance understanding of the formation and evolution of terrestrial planets. Bruce Banerdt of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., is principal investigator. JPL would manage the project.

Titan Mare Explorer (TiME) would provide the first direct exploration of an ocean environment beyond Earth by landing in, and floating on, a large methane-ethane sea on Saturn’s moon Titan. Ellen Stofan of Proxemy Research Inc. in Gaithersburg, Md., is principal investigator. Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., would manage the project.

Comet Hopper would study cometary evolution by landing on a comet multiple times and observing its changes as it interacts with the sun. Jessica Sunshine of the University of Maryland in College Park is principal investigator. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., would manage the project.

“This is high science return at a price that’s right. The selected studies clearly demonstrate a new era with missions that all touch their targets to perform unique and exciting science.”-Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division in Washington

Created in 1992, the Discovery Program sponsors frequent, cost-capped solar system exploration missions with highly focused scientific goals. The program’s 11 missions include MESSENGER, Dawn, Stardust, Deep Impact and Genesis. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the program for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate.
 

For more information about the Discovery Program, visit:
http://discovery.nasa.gov
Source: NASA

Related articles

• NASA Selects Investigations for Future Key Missions (spacefellowship.com)
• NASA selects investigations for future key missions (physorg.com)
• NASA shortlists three contenders for next robo-probe mission (go.theregister.com)
• Dawn Reaches Milestone Approaching Asteroid Vesta (spacefellowship.com)
• Comet Elenin: Preview of a Coming Attraction (spacefellowship.com)
• Stardust Ends Its Mission [Greg Laden’s Blog] (scienceblogs.com)
• Spacecraft Earth to Perform Asteroid ‘Flyby’ This Fall (spacefellowship.com)
• NASA’s Venerable Comet Hunter Wraps Up Mission (spacefellowship.com)
• a twelve year mission ends (avatarsinspace.wordpress.com)
• Five Things About NASA’s Voyager Mission – NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (mbcalyn.wordpress.com)

ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS >>> KNOWLEDGE YOU CAN TRUST >>> ENJOY IT!

>Google’s aims for Solar System-Wide WiFi

>

Image via Wikipedia

By Evan Dashevsky

 

Our solar system is big. Annoyingly so.
It’s so big that when it comes to communicating at these distances, even light speed doesn’t cut it. Transmitting data from the Earth to, say, a probe in orbit around Neptune takes about four hours. For a species that hopes to one day colonize our little space neighborhood and bring our information society in tow, this raises a range of communication hurdles. Aside from light’s newfound lugubriousness, the physical infrastructure of any interplanetary communication system would always be in flux as data relay stations duck and bob between the sun, planets, moons, and miscellaneous other celestial crumbs.
Sending a simple email between planets would be like playing a multimillion mile long game of croquet where all the hoops move at different speeds.
A loose coalition of smarty pantsinati have considered this problem for more than three decades. Chief among them has been Vint Cerf, often dubbed as one of “the fathers of the Internet” and current Google Chief Internet Evangelist. In 2009, Google unveiled a new interplanetary internet protocol developed by a team led by Cerf. The system compensated for these solar-system sized variables via a Delay- and Disruption-Tolerant Network (DTN). DTN is a networking architecture originally developed for the military that can function even when no clear end-to-end path is available.
DTNs stand in contrast to Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), which is the standard the traditional internet is based on. Whereas TCP/IP assumes it will be able to transmit data over a period of milliseconds and will attempt to transmit said data repeatedly until delivery is confirmed, DTN is designed to compensate for massive lag and limited energy resources. An interplanetary DTN would work by sending bundles of data via a chain of relay nodes positioned around the solar system that would store the bundles and forward them along to the next celestial middleman when a clear path becomes available. Some models call for sending multiple replicas of the same data along several pathways to increase the chances of the information reaching its target in a timely manner.
You’re still sending data through the metaphorical croquet match, but in the DTN version, all the hoops are aware of where the ball has to go and where all the other moving hoops are and will forward the ball accordingly.

This interplanetary internet (IPN) isn’t just theoretical chalk talk either, it has already entered real world testing. DTN protocols are being utilized by the International Space Station as well as between various research labs around the world. And Google has even conducted a long range DTN test (80 light seconds, around 15 million miles) via a repurposing of NASA’s EPOXI spacecraft (formerly known as “Deep Impact”).
In an interview with NetworkWorld, Cerf describes the Google’s initiative to bring a standard internet architecture to the Final Frontier starting this year:

So during 2011, our initiative is to “space qualify” the interplanetary protocols in order to standardize them and make them available to all the space-faring countries. If they choose to adopt them, then potentially every spacecraft launched from that time on will be interwoven from a communications point of view. But perhaps more important, when the spacecraft have finished their primary missions, if they are still functionally operable — they have power, computer, communications — they can become nodes in an interplanetary backbone. So what can happen over time, is that we can literally grow an interplanetary network that can support both man and robotic exploration.

As the growing family of space nations fling more of their machines and flying laboratories farther into the cosmos, they will also—envisions Cerf—be adding hubs to the newly standardized space web. This new IPN will evolve space technology beyond the limitations of traditional point-to-point radio links allowing for more complex missions in need of a richer communication environment.
Additionally, as humans follow our machines into the farther reaches of the solar system, this will help cut down on the inevitable psychological detachment. And let’s be honest, is the ability to go where no person has gone before even worth it if you can’t brag about it on Facebook?

Related articles

• Vint Cerf Says No To IPv7, Yes To InterPlanetary Web (tech.slashdot.org)
• Vint Cerf Eyes Interplanetary Internet (informationweek.com)
• Internet Pioneer Wants to Take Net Off Planet (pcworld.com)
• A father knows best: Vint Cerf re-thinks the Internet in Stanford talk (news.stanford.edu)

ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS >>> KNOWLEDGE YOU CAN TRUST >>> ENJOY IT!