Technology Marches On: DTN and The Space Internet

[alex_greene]

Space Just Got Its Own Internet

This month, NASA took a major step toward creating a Solar System Internet by establishing the first operational Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) service on the International Space Station (ISS).

After all, when you’re communicating with a satellite on the edge of the known galaxy the signals round trip time is likely to be more than just a few seconds.

How about a couple of weeks?

DTN Article

Scale this up for the X-Boat Network, and locally for every Imperial solar system - where delays out there are measured in minutes or hours.

Even if a system were TL 5 or below in the Imperium, I bet that it would have access to an Imperial DTN established in the outsystem.

 

[phavoc]

Even if a system were TL 5 or below in the Imperium, I bet that it would have access to an Imperial DTN established in the outsystem.

I bet you would be right. It would be too easy to import the necessary satellites, ground stations and other equipment for any system. Today you have guys in TL5 Waziristan using satellite phones. The issue in the system, like it is here, is that you can't support it with locally sourced parts. So if your satellite / sat phone breaks you have to procure another one from somewhere. There's nothing to say that a backwards system isn't going to have spares, or the necessary space craft to go up or out to the satellite and fix it with your trained tech. It just comes done to costs.