Abstract
In recent years, the number of space exploration missions has multiplied. Such an increase raises the question of effective communication between the multitude of human-made objects spread across our solar system. An efficient and scalable communication architecture presents multiple challenges, including the distance between planetary entities, their motion and potential obstruction, the limited available payload on satellites, and the high mission cost. This paper brings together recent relevant specifications, standards, mission demonstrations, and the most recent proposals to develop a unified architecture for deep-space internetworked communication. After characterizing the transmission medium and its unique challenges, we explore the available communication technologies and frameworks to establish a reliable communication architecture across the solar system. We then draw an evolutive roadmap for establishing a scalable communication architecture. This roadmap builds upon the mission-centric communication architectures in the upcoming years towards a fully interconnected network or InterPlanetary Internet (IPN). We finally discuss the tools available to develop such an architecture in the short, medium, and long terms. The resulting architecture cross-supports space agencies on the solar system-scale while significantly decreasing space communication costs. Through this analysis, we derive the critical research questions remaining for creating the IPN regarding the considerable challenges of space communication.
Highlights
Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in space exploration, and multiple recent missions have attracted significant media attention
DIRECTIONS The increasing number of space exploration missions has created an urgent need for a unified communication architecture
We investigated the challenges imposed by the heterogeneous space environments, analyzed the communication medium, and inspected the sources of disruption, loss, and delay
Summary
Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in space exploration, and multiple recent missions have attracted significant media attention. INTERNET NETWORK (IPN) OVERVIEW Space exploration and scientific missions require the transmission of large volumes of scientific data between the Earth and outer space As such, they need a reliable, scalable, and easy to deploy communication architecture in a challenging transmission environment. An IPN architecture should focus on backward compatibility and scalability to reuse the existing infrastructure and minimize the time and cost of deployment These constraints lead to significant challenges: extremely long and variable propagation delays, asymmetric data rates, error-prone links, intermittent link connectivity, and lack of backward compatibility. The planetary or proximity network interconnects the surface nodes, e.g., the planet’s landers, Earth mission operation centers (MOCs), and other terrestrial nodes With these networks, the IPN extends the Earth’s internet to include other regions of interest (planets, moons) and provides communication among the satellites and planetary surface elements [2] within a given area. LCRD will demonstrate the robust capabilities of laser communications, which can provide significant benefits to missions, including bandwidth increases of 10 to 100 times more than radiofrequency systems [34]
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