A LEGO robot has helped to improve
communications between planets
In an attempt to further the
“Interplanetary Internet,” NASA and the
European Space Agency successfully tested an experimental network
on a LEGO robot. The goal of the experiment was to re-create a
situation that could improve Internet-like communications between
Earth and other planets so that one day this technology could
support space vehicles and life forms on other planets.
The LEGO robot controlled from space.
(Image via European Space Agency)
Sunita Williams, commanding officer at the
International Space Station orbiting about 200 miles above earth,
used NASA’s Disruption Tolerant Network (DTN) to transmit
messages and drive a LEGO robot stationed at the European Space
Operations Center in Germany. Williams used a NASA-developed laptop
to control the LEGO robot.
The International Space Station where
Williams was able to control the LEGO robot in Germany.
“The demonstration showed the
feasibility of using a new communications infrastructure to send
commands to a surface robot from an orbiting spacecraft and receive
images and data back from the robot," said Badri Younes, deputy
associate administrator for space communications and navigation at
Younes envisions that one day humans can orbit
Mars in spacecraft and operate robots that are stationed on the red
The DTN enables standardized communication to
function over long distances, as well as combats time delays that
are often associated with spacecraft and robotic systems in space.
DTN comprises a “Bundle Protocol” (BP) which
resembles the Internet Protocol (IP), the core of Internet on
earth. BP offers a defense against disconnections and errors
because the data moves through DTN in a chain-like fashion, only
moving through the network when a link becomes available. If there
is no clear connection for the information to travel through, it is
stored and only released when the next link has become
The DTN protocol is still under development, but
is being tested in other areas for applications such as sensor
networks, mobile devices, and military communications that often
suffer from disrupted networks. ■
To learn more about DTN visit http://go.nasa.gov/SxV9QS