NASA Taking Ethernet Into Deeper Space 77
coondoggie writes "While Ethernet technology has gone places no one would have envisioned 36 years ago, NASA today signed an agreement with a German Ethernet vendor to build highly fault-tolerant networks for space-based applications.
TTTech builds a set of time-triggered services called TTEthernet that is implemented on top of standard IEEE802.3 Ethernet. Its technology is designed to enable design of synchronous, highly dependable embedded computing and networking, capable of tolerating multiple faults, the company said."
Too much Cat-5 (Score:5, Funny)
At those distances, I'd have gone wireless. Wait to string ethernet to the space station until we're done with the space elevator.
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Dont be so short sighted. We should run Cat6, if not fiber.
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Dont be so short sighted. We should run Cat6, if not fiber.
I thought tubes were the big thing these days.
Re:Too much Cat-5 (Score:4, Funny)
Agreed. I also hope they have it in conduits or something. Otherwise, somebody is will trip over it and pull the space station out of orbit.
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The correct solution is "Tether the space elevator with Cat x, for sufficiently high values of x."*
*Derivation of the value of x is left as an exercise for the reader.
Re:Too much Cat-5 (Score:4, Funny)
I can't wait to see the looks on their faces at the ISS when the backhoe shows up.
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I have heard about digging the last mile. I wonder how much time warner is gonna charge NASA for it?
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Do it the way the pros do. Wait until the government promises you a tax write off then just don't do it. It worked for the telco's.
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At those distances, I'd have gone wireless. Wait to string ethernet to the space station until we're done with the space elevator.
I wonder what the support guys think about the wire.
"I think USB should be enough for anyone . . . " (Score:3, Funny)
. . . and during those long, boring missions the astronauts can amuse themselves by untangling all those cables.
Which would make a good high school space project: do USB cables tangle up in space, while under weightless conditions?
If so, I'll take one look at the situation under my desk, and move into outer space.
Plus, USB is cheap; companies give away hubs and memory sticks as advertising. NASA could keep costs down by scrounging USB gear.
Re:"I think USB should be enough for anyone . . . (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2077237 [nih.gov]
Gravity isn't required only some motion of the string
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the real question is will they cap or throttle?
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the real question is, will pr0n be censored?
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Didn't they watch BS:G? (Score:2, Funny)
Networking on board spaceships is bad. The Cylons can tap into them.
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That works both ways. Shove a piece of fiber into the wrist of a friendly Cylon and you can immobilize their entire invasion fleet. At least that's my understanding.
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I'd love to shove a... ehem... "fiber"... into another kind of "wrist" on that cute asian one, and immobilize it with multiple orgasms. ^^
Imagine the whole fleet, including the base-stars and hunters having constant orgasms. Would be a funny sight... Until they "cum" with all their nukes at once.
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Someone had to do it... (Score:5, Funny)
Would that be Aethernet?
More here [wikipedia.org]
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Yeah, I was wondering how you're going to do Ethernet without the ether.
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WRWAN (Score:5, Interesting)
It might be an interesting project indeed to send out a bunch of peers out into the solar system to relay sensor and communications data. A WRWAN (Wireless Really Wide Area Network) might be the kind of utility that could facilitate more reliable data flow for future exploration projects.
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Interesting, but difficult as hell because of the enormous amounts of power required, and the large antenna required, and the high pointing sensitivity required... Much simpler to put all that hardware on Earth, which can 'see' the majority of the solar system and the equipment can be easily gotten at for maintenance and upgrades.
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Very fragile network (Score:3, Funny)
If you take down the sun, the entire network would fall apart in 8 minutes flat.
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If you take down the Sun, the entire network would fall apart in 8 minutes flat.
There fixed that for you :P
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+1 Insightfully Stoned
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Assuming a superior entity wanted to monitor the state universe (Quality control). It could put the CPU in the center of that blackhole, it could process all information necessary... and only react by broadcasting commands through Hawking radiation... like a video surveillance system passively storing and process
I'd have taken it all the way to subspace (Score:3, Funny)
...but for those who go through life at impulse power, I suppose this will do.
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This is news?
My copy of the Guide is kept regularly updated by the sub-ether net.
Just what we need... (Score:2, Funny)
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In space, no one can hear your jokes about Soviet Russia.
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In space, no one can hear your jokes about Soviet Russia.
In Soviet Russia, your jokes can hear no one about space!
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I'm sorry, I thought you were serious.
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I thought IPv6 was designed for that kind of thing. Can't find any terrestrial uses for it...
Re:Just what we need... (Score:4, Funny)
Silly NASA, you only get 100m per segment (Score:3, Funny)
They are not going to run out (Score:2)
These are ROCKET-SCIENTISTS! They are not going to do something as silly as measure the cable in yards and the distance in meters. Rocket-scientists don't do that.
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reference please?
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Only one thing to say: (Score:5, Funny)
LAAAAG!
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(Replying in part to undo my mistaken overrated mod)
If you thought that Comcast's bandwidth restrictions were bad, try NASA's.
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With practice, the pigeons will get faster at putting on their little space suits and the lag will get better.
space ethernet (Score:1, Funny)
because when we build a lunar colony or send explorers to mars, they will need porn too.
It's called AFDX (Score:2, Insightful)
They already have Fault tolerant ethernet used in avionics systems called AFDX - why pay a foreign company to design an entirely new version of something we already have?
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Anonymous Coward (Score:1, Funny)
Actually TTTech is an Austrian company (founded in Vienna), there are no kangaroos here but a lot of mountains and we speak German. However great world leader Barack Obama recently suggested us to have our own Austrian language: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAmaGgBrDAs ;)
The Austrians in comparison to the Germans are like the Kiwis are to the Australians, people always get us mixed up.
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I have heard the crap you speak and it really is your own language. Please do not call that german, the only thing worse is the noise the swiss make.
TTTech is an Austrian company (Score:1)
Easy... (Score:4, Funny)
Oh noes! (Score:5, Funny)
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I was thinking....
SPAAAAaaaaaaaccceeee GHOoooooossst!!!!!!
YMMV
you followin me camera guy? (Score:1)
at least it's made in Germany. You know the Germans always make good stuff.
Warcraft in space! (Score:1)
Bittorrent in space? (Score:1)
Lasers (Score:1)
In To DEEP SPACE.....? (Score:2)
Should I expect a shortage on CAT-5 cable?
This is actually great news (Score:1)
If any of you klowns ever had to implement a distributed computing system on a spacecraft using the 1553 bus you'd appreciate what a huge development this could be. However, it sounds like its coming out of the Cx program which worries me. Hopefully it's not brain-damaged and it will catch on because if I never see another 1553 bus controller or RT chip again in my life that would be just fine. BTW, Spacewire is an even bigger PITA as 1553, only faster. This could possibly replace both 1553 and Spacewire, w
LANStar (Score:1)