NASA eyes extending Internet into space

Internet Protocol standards already enable global communications. Now, NASA researchers are trying to extend the reach of TCP/IP into space. By doing so, they not only hope to improve satellite operations, but also hope to improve Earth-bound Internet operations.

Currently, NASA systems use specialized standards suited to the particular circumstances of space, said Will Ivancic, senior research engineer at NASA's Glenn Research Center. "There are standards, but they are standards used by a dozen people," he said.

Officials at NASA's Satellite Networks and Architectures Branch hope that by adapting the widely used Internet standards, they can make their applications more efficient and less costly.

"We're attempting to look at TCP/IP from a long distance," said Bruce Fleming, divisional officer for Verizon Communication's Federal Network Systems group, NASA's contractor on the project.

TCP/IP is designed for more localized situations, he noted. "We are extending this way beyond what is seen as optimum for the protocol," Fleming said.

NASA's Internet Engineering Task Force TCP Over Satellite Working Group has been doing research for several years that grew out of efforts to use IP for satellite communications. That research is "pretty mature," Ivancic said.

"There is no reason why you shouldn't be able to use these protocols to control the spacecraft," he said.

The goal of the long-term research, however, is to improve the commercial protocols so they work better in a space environment, but only if the changes also are applicable to terrestrial systems.

"It can't just be a niche for NASA," Ivancic said. "It has to have commercial applications."