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CU-Boulder, NASA Test New ‘Space Internet’ Protocols on International Space Station

sparky3887 — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:04:04 +0000

The University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder) is collaborating with NASA on the development of a new Interplanetary Internet currently undergoing testing on the International Space Station. Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) technology is designed to extend the terrestrial Internet into outer space and the solar system so that NASA and other space agencies around the world can better communicate with international spacecraft fleets that will be used for lunar and Martian exploration. “Highly automated future communications capabilities will be required for lunar habitation and surface exploration that include passing information between orbiting relay satellites, lunar and planetary habitats, and astronauts on the surface,” says Kevin Gifford with CU-Boulder’s BioServe Space Technologies. “But existing Internet protocols, where Internet hosts and computers are always connected, do not work well for many space-based environments, where intermittently connected operations are common.” NASA’s Adrian Hooke says the new system eliminates the problem of delays caused by spacecraft moving behind planets or solar storm disruptions because data packages, rather than being jettisoned, are stored as long as needed until an opportunity to transmit them comes up. “By improving data timeliness associated with robotic and human-tended missions, NASA is reducing risk, reducing cost, increasing crew safety, improving operational awareness, and improving science return,” Gifford says. “There also are intriguing applications of the DTN technology on Earth. They include the tracking of livestock and wildlife, enhancing Internet ‘hot spot’ connectivity in remote rural areas in Third World countries, and tactical operations support for the U.S. military.”

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NASA: Robots Critical to Endeavour’s Mission on Space Station

sparky3887 — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:35:06 +0000

The U.S. space shuttle’s current mission, one of the most technical ever attempted by NASA, would not be possible without the use of robotics, says Holly Ridings, the lead space station flight director for the Endeavour mission. “We have learned a lot about robotics and about working together with a robot,” Ridings says. “Robotics is really one of the things that NASA has a lot of experience in and it’s allowing us to do some wonderful things on the space station.” After docking with the space station on the morning of June 15th, the Endeavour crew will take the mission’s first spacewalk, assisted by two robotic arms. Ridings says that while the astronauts work outside the space station, a robotic arm will lift a 4-ton piece of the Japanese complex out of the shuttle’s payload bay. The piece, which will be attached to the outside of the Japanese module, is designed to hold its own payloads and host experiments that need to be conducted in outer space. In addition to the station’s two main robotic arms, which will hand off the new piece between them several times during the mission, a third robotic arm, attached to the Japanese module, will be used for the first time in about a week. The third arm, installed in June 2008, will pick up and move payloads to the new piece. The robotic arm’s software features several redundancies and five to seven things would have to go wrong for the arm to let go of the space station and drift away, Ridings says.

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NASA Fashions Mountain Climbing Robot

sparky3887 — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 04:38:06 +0000

Network World (02/05/09) Cooney, Michael

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has unveiled Axel, a prototype rover that is capable of traversing extremely rough terrain, including rappelling off cliffs, traveling over steep and rocky terrain, and exploring deep craters. NASA says Axel could help future robotic spacecraft better explore and investigate foreign planets such as Mars, and help search-and-rescue missions explore dangerous terrain on Earth. The single-axel robot contains computing and wireless communications capabilities, has an inertial sensor for autonomous operations, and is capable of operating upside down and right side up. Axel also has a tether that allows it to attach to and descend from a larger lander, rover, or another anchor point. The single-axel design allows the robot to be part of a larger system in which an Axel robot could be deployed by a larger rover to explore steep terrain, or multiple Axel rovers could be coordinated in a variety of configurations to carry larger payload modules. Axel also could become part of the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR) project that NASA recently announced. The EATR project is intended to develop and demonstrate an autonomous robotic platform capable of performing long-range, long-endurance missions without the need for manual or conventional re-fueling.

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