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Types of Communication Technology |
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Written by Kamil Shah
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Sunday, 30 January 2005 |
| The rovers are required to transmit information between hardware
within itself, between itself and other vehicles such as the mother ship
and most importantly, between the mother ship and Earth-base infrastructure.
Therefore, we must consider some long-haul data links as well as proximity
networks for data transmission near the planet. |
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Illustration of the interplanetary internet
with earth being the central hub of the network |
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Currently, Mars rovers can transmit data back to Earth utilising X-bands
and Microwave technology at around 85 kilobytes per second. However, in
a document produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
NASA , they described their intention of improving this: "The aggregate
date produced by these missions will be multiplexed through a backbone network
to the Earth that will eventually support data rates in the Gigabit per
second range." As NASA proposed the 'Mars-Earth backbone network' provides
the long haul data link directly between the rover and Earth base infrastructure
such as Deep Space Network (DSN). |
| Earth communication segment also includes the NASA and other
space agency Intranets and virtual private networks (VPN) and the internet.
DSN is currently employed by NASA to track missions in Space. It has three
sites on Earth, including Goldstone in California, Madrid in Spain and Canberra
in Australia. Yet, Interplanetary Internet will be one of the most advanced
technologies used to communicate with Mars. This will later act as a network
of disconnected internets in the solar system. |
| In the future, wireless links can be established between
planetary vehicles of a relatively close distance. For Mars exploration,
this is known as the Mars vehicle proximity networks. There are three types
of architectural elements which provide such links: |
- Orbiter - Surface: An orbiting vehicle will act as a type of 'satellite'
which will receive the signal. Therefore, this link will be between
the planet's surface and an airborne vehicle. In future, they will act
as a type of relay which will transmit data from the planet back to
Earth.
- Mars inter-spacecraft networks: Sending data between spacecraft which
is approaching or leaving the Mars surface.
- Mars Surface networks: This provides data links between surface-based
vehicles such as rovers. This network of data links will form an adhoc
network.
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| Finally, the most primitive and essential communication method
is between the hardware within the rover itself. The various modules within
the rovers are connected by an internal Local Area Network (LAN) which utilises
serial and parallel buses. |
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