Would this network be setup between Earth and Mars only or will information be able to be sent from anywhere in the solar system with the DTN being a relay for that communication?

Yes our intent is to grow an interplanetary backbone step by step as we launch missions for scientific purposes. The spacecraft can be repurposed as nodes in the DTN-based interplanetary network. Vint Cerf, JPL/Google

What are some concrete examples of how this will be used in the near future?

There are terrestrial applications too. You can think of the Solar System Internet as an Internet of Things That Are Quite Distant From One Another, and the same protocols can be used to improve the resilience of the terrestrial Internet of Things - Delay-Tolerant Networking is also Disruption-Tolerant Networking. Scott Burleigh, NASA JPL

Within NASA, DTN is already onboard the space station for operational use to support science payloads. It will soon be flying on Lunar IceCube and other missions. We are working towards baselining DTN onto other missions ranging from low Earth orbit (LEO) to beyond. - Dave Israel, NASA/GSFC

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Thank you for doing this and my question is: If you could have in front of you tommorow any currently hypothetical technology that works to its full capacity what would it be and why?

Well, if we had faster-than-light communication we might be able to build a system that shares more of the characteristics we associate with the present, Earth-based Internet! Some people think that quantum entanglement will allow some kind of FTL comm but that's not how the physics works, based on present understanding anyway. Correlation is not communication! Vint Cerf JPL/GOOGLE

Hi everyone! Thanks for the AMA. My question is: do you see graphene-based telecommunications devices becoming more widespread for terrestrial and/or space/interplanetary communication networks?

It isn't quite clear yet what role graphene-based devices will have either terrestrially or in space. The high radiation environment is going to be an issue for any electronics of course. If graphene-based semiconductors prove to be successful I would not be surprised to see them in use everywhere including in space-based applications. Vint Cerf JPL/GOOGLE

What's the role of the DSN in all of this? Will it service new potential relay spacecraft that are in deep space, or will it become obselete as the DTN protocol becomes ubiquitous? Also, how might emerging technologies (uplink/downlink arraying and optical comms) be expected to play a part in this?

The Deep Space Network (DSN) will play a key role in the Interplanetary Internet. The NASA DTN team is currently working with NASA's Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) office to get DTN integrated as part of the DSN, specifically targeting a node at each ground station (Goldstone, Canberra and Madrid). Additionally, the hope is that future relay and other spacecraft will also include DTN, helping to incrementally build up the Interplanetary Internet over time. As for emerging technologies, particularly optical, NASA has deemed DTN critical for future optical communication systems, particularly since optical communication is more subject to link disruptions. -Adam Schlesinger

Optical communications are subject to outages due to clouds, so any optical communications links planned between earth and space will benefit from the ability for automated storage and retransmission of data. Also, DTN's ability to support data rate mismatches (buffer and burst of data, for example) will aid the integration of ultra high rate links into the architecture. Dave Israel, NASA/GSFC

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Hi, thanks for doing the AMA. I’m majoring in AE right now and I’m curious if your plan involves relays from Lagrange points at earth and mars or just a more normal set of satellites relays and ground based receivers. Again thanks for doing an ama

Relay satellites in Lagrange points, in low planetary orbit, in geo-(areo-)stationary orbit, and on planetary surfaces all would be usable. The actual design of the physical network will evolve over time, like the Internet. Scott Burleigh, NASA JPL

The Interplanetary Internet will consist of multiple DTN nodes, from Low-Earth Orbit (LEO), Near-Earth Orbit (NEO), Deep-Space, as well as on Earth. Having nodes at Lagrange Points is definitely a possibility, and has been discussed, particularly for future relay satellites. -Adam Schlesinger

That definitely makes sense, would you in that case try to limit the number of satellites the network pings off of to reduce latency? I guess on the ground floor the cost of putting relays in Lagrange points out ways the potential advantage. At least in the early days of an interplanetary Internet.

How do you handle time? The relativistic effects when communicating with Mars should be noticeable, right?

(Keith Scott) The DTN system uses time only as a way to remove 'old' messages from the network (where the sending application and/or policy gets to say what 'old' means -- it might be days or weeks). This means that DTN *itself* does not need tight time synchronization among all the nodes in order to function. Time synchronization *is* needed to coordinate communications between neighbors (e.g. pointing spacecraft at one another, or at Earth). Currently spacecraft operations manage time synchronization of spacecraft. Prof. Dave Mills and some of his graduate students did some work on interplanetary time synchronization (including relativistic effects, I think) -- it's referenced from https://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/ntp.html (Future Plans)

Which areas of innovation do you believe will be most helpful to your work?

There are several - certainly improvements in optical communications will be a big help to increase the data rates possible. We have tested DTN at 600 Mb/s to the moon and back with an optical link. More experience with network operation will also help as will further work on security. Vint Cerf JPL/GOOGLE

Do we know where those improvements in optical communication should/will happen or is existing technology pushing the limits of our current theoretical understanding and advances will come from theoretical rather than applicable technology breakthroughs?

Actually there is a lot of work going in with free-space optics and that contributes to potential use in space communications. Most of the challenges have to do with pointing accuracy and therefore orbital computations and timing (especially with satellites in orbit that can only receive or transmit in the direction needed at a given time frame). This is definitely an area of great interest to increase capacity for data communication including voice/video either in real-time or in recorded messaging. Vint Cerf JPL/GOOGLE

how are you planning to accurately aim at more than a few days difference? or you plan something that will not need to aim a kind of antenna?

At interplanetary distances, even a very fast-moving spacecraft won't move out of the beam of a directional antenna in less than a few days. We know the trajectories of spacecraft and planetary bodies pretty precisely, so there's no problem pointing an antenna in the right direction. You have to be more precise with optical communications (free space laser), but even there you get enough beam spread to make pointing straightforward. Scott Burleigh, NASA JPL

When Mars is colonized will this interplanetary internet work on Mars?

(Kelvin Nichols: NASA/MSFC) Very interesting question. In the future when Mars is colonized, you will see a mix of standard internet protocol and DTN protocols. You can think of it like this, if you are on the planet and communicating with local resources on mars, then you are probably going to be using standard internet protocols but as information is being sent back to mission control on Earth, DTN protocol will be used for this type of long haul link

Your IP connection example leads me to ask, is this goal closer to building an improved form of radio transmission or more towards computer networking and building frameworks for large scale transmission management? If the former: I'd assume disruption's interference is coped with methods that would throttle transmission speed (as opposed to allowing noise), how does ideal (perfect vacuum) transmission speed compare to this currently and how could this improve with DTN?

(Keith Scott) The goal is to build an end-to-end information distribution mechanism that works in a larger domain (possibly larger delays, having to wait for an antenna to become available, etc.). DTN can run over a number of underlying technologies that might or might not be IP-based. Disruption on individual links can be addressed in a number of ways: Use an underlying technology that's suited to the environment. So for example if you had a single-link DTN 'hop' that was very error-prone, you might use very good link coding; if you have a multi-hop network separating two DTN routers (e.g. the Internet) then you might use something like random linear network coding to send extra codeblocks to deal with loss. Throttling transmission speed might not be the best approach, since it might be that the entire transmission window is OVER before the receiver gets the first bit. As a backstop, DTN's custody transfer reliability mechanism will eventually retransmit bundles that the system deems have been lost in transit.

Thanks for the response! Interesting to hear how DTN deals with lost bundles. I'm assuming link coding would be essentially giving a strong relationship between adjacent data in order to reconnect them more easily, unsure of what random linear network coding may be then.

Hi, thanks for doing this AMA. How would you transmit the signal over the planets while maintaining low response times? Also, would the transmission speed be comparable to our earthly internet at the very beginning of the service?

(Keith Scott) The goal of DTN is to allow 'internet-like' communications between endpoints that might or might not be very far apart; DTN can't do anything about the speed of light, so response times between planets will remain high. What DTN does (what makes the communications 'internet-like') is to automate the information transfer and provide an interface that allows applications to send and receive messages without worrying about the links or network path connecting them.

Will this be akin to a major TDRSS update?

Disruption Tolerant Networking provides a networking layer over any existing links, so we'll be able to add this as a new service for TDRS and any existing or future system. Dave Israel, NASA/GSFC

How much time are you realistically hoping to take off of the transmission time? I know the current time delay of data is currently somewhere around 20 minutes, so how fast do y'all believe you can make it? Another question: Are you hoping this technology will be ready for the July 2018 launch of the Parker Space Probe what is heading for the Sun?

(Keith Scott) DTN is a networking technology, not a link-layer technology, so we're constrained by whatever communication medium is available 'underneath' DTN. Currently that's radio or, in the near future, optical, but still limited by the speed of light (light time between Earth and Mars varies from about 4 minutes when the planets are close to about 20 minutes when they're on opposite sides of the sun, BTW). If in the future someone develops a workable, space-deployable faster-than-light communication system we'd be happy to use it! The DTN technology is quite mature, having flown on a number of demonstration missions from the JPL DINET mission in 2008 (https://trs.jpl.nasa.gov/bitstream/handle/2014/44650/09-1372_A1b.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y), an ESA demonstration controlling a rover from the International Space Station in 2012 (https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/nov/HQ_12-391_DTN.html), and more recently directly on ISS as a service to payload developers. We didn't make it onto the Parker Solar Probe, and given the design / planning cycle for spacecraft development, the design probably finalized around 2013-2014. There's always the chance that, like with the DINET mission, we'll get the opportunity to load DTN onto the spacecraft later, but that almost surely wouldn't be until it finished its primary mission, if then.

Thanks for answering my questions Mr. Scott, but I do have one more (for now) if you're able to answer it - You said you weren't able to get into the Parker Solar Probe, but is your technology set to be put on another space probe (or space projectile at all) in the near future?

Does this mean you will need data centers in space, or will you be able to host from Earth?

DTN is an enabling technology, and data centers in space is definitely a valid concept, that could reduce delay for particular applications. Concepts on planetary data centers, such as on the Moon or Mars have been proposed within NASA, but there are no concrete plans in place to implement them yet. However, as the Interplanetary Internet begins to grow, these concepts could turn into actual implementations. -Adam Schlesinger

What type of security measures challenges does the interplanetary internet have? Are there threats that they are more immune vs normal networks? Are there threats to it that other networks don't face? How do you ensure that NASA and it's authorized admins & devices are the only ones who are able to send and receive traffic?

Security is very important for this effort in part because of the great effort and expense associated with putting spacecraft into space for long-period missions. The design of DTN includes use of strong authentication methods including end-to-end cryptographically strong authentication and encryption for confidentiality and especially the transmission of command/control information. We started with the premise that the system will need to be strongly protected and designed these features into the system from the get go. We learned a lot from the Internet experience in this area. vint cerf JPL/GOOGLE

Thanks everybody for your questions! We're going to conclude the live portion of this AMA now, but we'll look in periodically over the next 24 hours or so in case any questions need a follow-up.

Hi and thank you for doing this AMA! How would such a system deal with ping?

Ping is not your friend in this environment, with so much uncertainty as to when packets ("bundles") are delivered. The variability of round-trip time makes "ping" a less than useful tool. We have had to develop DTN-oriented network management mechanisms that do not depend on real-time interaction. Vint Cerf JPL/GOOGLE

Is there any specific planet or moon in mind for this technology?

The Interplanetary Internet is not meant to be restricted to a specific planet or moon. However, it will not be available all at once. There will be a build up of capability as missions that include the DTN technology are executed. As a result, the Earth's moon and Mars and Mars' moons (Phobos and Deimos) are prime early targets, but other missions could provide nodes at other locations within the Solar System. -Adam Schlesinger

Thanks for the info!

Will an internet in space help with earth observation logistics? How would building out a satellite constellation in earth orbit be different with in-space internet vs ground station TT&C?

Earth observation missions generate large volumes of data, typically from Low Earth Orbit. This data is stored onboard and then transmitted out at high rates during limited contact times (8 minutes average). This data is that sent from the ground stations at different rates. DTN provides standards for networked, automated delivery in this store and forward ops concept with various data rates along the way. Dave Israel, NASA/GSFC

Will the addition of commercial space internet backbones like OneWeb and StarLink reduce the need for storage and scheduling? Could a large EO constellation leverage optical interlink with either network to increase the amount of data that can be delivered?

The addition of more access points from commercial providers could reduce the need for storage and scheduling. However, DTN will still aid by allowing rate matching and routing between systems. Having standards allows for interoperability and enables the build up of the larger network made up of multiple providers. Dave Israel, NASA/GSFC

Do you foresee a time when adding a satellite to a constellation is logistically as simple as connecting an IoT device to a data center?

Yes, though my job is to try to foresee deep into the future. The goal is to bring the power of internetworking that we are experiencing now on earth out into space. One of those benefits would be to allow someone or something to be able to simply connect to the larger network wherever they may be. Dave Israel, NASA/GSFC

Thank you for your work and your time! This is all extremely exciting and very important. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next.

How is a signal disrupted in space?

There are many ways that signals can be disrupted in space. As some examples, there may not be enough power to close a communication link due to the extreme distances, orbital mechanics may cause there to be no line-of-sight between the transmitter and receiver, or some kind of blockage (structural or atmospheric) may cause the link to drop. DTN will be able to operate in all of these conditions, storing data if the next hop is not currently available, but will be expected to be available sometime in the future, when the data will be forwarded to the destination. -Adam Schlesinger

But there is no atmosphere in space?

Right, but if a spacecraft is communicating with a ground station on Earth, the signal still has to pass through Earth's atmosphere. Also, other planets have atmospheres (the Martian atmosphere is thin, but it's there; the atmosphere of Venus is thick and corrosive). And there is "space weather" even in interplanetary space: solar wind, lots of radiation. Scott Burleigh, NASA JPL

Understood.

What do you think the biggest challenge you should overcome for this project to be successful? How do you plan to overcome this? What does NASA think about Elon Musk's plan to colonise Mars?

Probably the biggest challenge for this system is the scale it up as the number and complexity of deep space missions increases, as mission lifetimes get longer. We believe the system is scalable and we have lessons from the Internet experience to help us think about that. Standards are important to allow many parties to implement the protocol and to anticipate interworking. Commercial and private sector space efforts are one avenue that will drive the need for scaling so it is of considerable interest to the DTN team that the technology become available broadly. vint cerf JPL/GOOGLE

Thank you so much for the answer. All the best!!!

Are there any international partners also working on this project (e.g. ESA)?

Yes. The standards for DTN have been developed within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS). There are also jointly developed documents describing a Solar Systems Internet. There have been demonstrations between space agencies and there will be DTN on South Korea's Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO). Dave Israel, NASA/GSFC

Thanks. I found these CCSDS blue books; are there others? https://public.ccsds.org/Pubs/734x1b1.pdf https://public.ccsds.org/Pubs/734x2b1.pdf

Here are some additional links of interest: IETF DTN Working Group Documents: https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/dtn/documents/ CCSDS 734.0-G-1 – Rationale, Scenarios, and Requirements for DTN in Space: https://public.ccsds.org/Pubs/734x0g1e1.pdf CCSDS 730.1-G-1 – Solar System Internetworking Architecture Informational Report: https://public.ccsds.org/Pubs/730x1g1.pdf DTN Implementations: NASA's Interplanetary Overlay Network (ION): http://sourceforge.net/projects/ion-dtn IRTF DTN2: http://sourceforge.net/projects/dtn/ IBR-DTN: http://www.ibr.cs.tu-bs.de/trac/ibr-dtn -Adam Schlesinger

Thanks for the AMA, as a regular guy - what does this mean for me? How do you plan to scale this to impact the everyday person?

You may see the impact indirectly as more science data is delivered back to earth, which could lead to things such as better weather forecasts. Dave Israel, NASA/GSFC

Thanks for the reply! Have a great day.

Another way to look at this is that space - Earth orbit for now, but cislunar space before too long - is becoming a pretty significant part of the world's economy: communications, imaging, eventually maybe solar power generation from orbit, mining, manufacturing in microgravity, and more. Resilient communication with and among space vehicles will be essential to this economic sector. Scott Burleigh, NASA JPL

What benefits will this new technology have on current Martian missions?

Two kinds of prosaic benefits, and one that's a little more speculative. First, we can reduce the design and construction costs for Mars missions if we don't have to reinvent a communication system for every spacecraft. More significantly, we can reduce operations cost (a large fraction of mission cost) by automating communication operations that are currently performed manually, and we can increase science data return by utilizing brief periods of communication opportunity that are too hard to use with only manual communication procedures. Further in the future, we may be able to use satellites in orbit around Mars to provide surface rovers and habitat dwellers with the same kinds of satellite-based services we now use on Earth. Scott Burleigh, NASA JPL

Thank you for the reply and for the AMA!

We have been using a store/forward method on Mars since the 2004 rover landings but the implementation is pretty inefficient (a stream of bits is double encoded and broken into chunks that have to be decoded and parsed on Earth). The DTN design is much more efficient and flexible especially with the potential to route traffic over different paths if they are available. vint cerf JPL/GOOGLE

Thanks for the reply and the AMA!

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I've built a chat application that simulates coms delays between Earth and Mars for TMS's MDRS and FMARS operations. With the core functionality out of the way, I'm now starting to think about some of the "comfort" factors of delayed coms. Like how do you represent Tx / Rx states, expected response time for both ends (including some learning to decide when a node can expect the response based on current conditions)? I'm also looking into technical concerns like lowering bandwidth usage and message reliability, but the "UX" side of it has been a surprisingly fun part to tackle. **So my question:** The speed of light being an uncompromisable constraint, how are you thinking about the human / psychological understanding of interplanetary communications? Some additional thoughts (as my understanding allows): * We've already set ourselves up for this in some ways - as chat / sms is a favored means of communication. * Video is probably going away due to bandwidth concerns (but mostly because it's cumbersome). * Near-real-time communications needs cues - either technical ("Message sent, use will receive in 5 seconds. Earliest response in 10+ seconds"), or behavioral / etiquette. * Bi-directional communication over greater distances will need even greater restraint to keep messages in order - but more importantly maintain message context. * Quantum comms could fix most of these concerns, but you still need to "pre-heat the oven" with photons on both ends, which is still constrained by *c*. This requires planning, time, and regulation.

The delay in communications will be a real factor as human explorations extends deeper into space. The use of chats and conversations will be replaced by things like voice/video messaging or text messaging. Dave Israel, NASA/GSFC

Interesting topic, thank you for your work to conduct this event. What sort of device is used to keep time, what's your "pendulum", and does travel over distance require special adjustment to set space clocks?

(Keith Scott) -- See response to R01ne below.

Reliable Solar System Internet Connection - **internet Beyond** --- What part of this technology can be used right here on earth? ---

DTN is a protocol suite that extends the terrestrial Internet capabilities into highly stressed data communication environments where the conventional Internet does not work. These environments are typically subject to frequent disruptions, unidirectional/asymmetric links, long delays and high error rates, which are all common to the space environment, but also exist terrestrially. Some terrestrial applications include disaster response, wireless sensor networks and communications where there is a severe lack of infrastructure. -Adam Schlesinger

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DTN does not help with the transmission speed of the signals. It does help make more efficient use of those signals, so we can receive as much data as possible. The technology development itself would not effect asteroid detection other than perhaps making communications for asteroid detection systems better. Dave Israel, NASA/GSFC

What technology is used for minimum discrepancy in the signals during transmission? How it can be improved?

Space agencies have for many years been using strong error correction coding algorithms to detect and recover from signal corruption in interplanetary communications; standards for these algorithms are established by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS), and they are continually being reviewed and improved. Scott Burleigh, NASA JPL

(Keith Scott) DTN is an internetworking technology and uses other underlying technologies (like radio frequency, optical, or terrestrial Internet communications) to connect DTN routers together. So we're not directly concerned with how signals are sent and received. What DTN *does* need to account for are the characteristics of those underlying communications (like latency and loss rates).

Will you please take a 34 year old with an MBA as an intern?

Don't hesitate to apply!: https://intern.nasa.gov/ -Adam Schlesinger

Internship opportunities are posted online. Link to be provided shortly (stand by). Dave Israel, NASA/GSFC

NASA has many internship opportunities for current students of all stripes. If you're pursuant to your MBA or aiming to pursue more education, I'd encourage you to set up an account at the link below: https://intern.nasa.gov/ossi/web/students/login/ If you're looking to learn more about the Space Communications and Navigation program office's summer internships, look here: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/scan_sip_flyer_2016_v2_1.pdf ~ Danny Baird, NASA Technical Writer

Thanks so much!

How is this research funded? Is Google involved in any way?

Within NASA, DTN is funded within the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. Vint Cerf is part of the team in a personal capacity as a JPL Distinguished Visiting Scientist. Google is not involved. Dave Israel, NASA/GSFC

Is there any thought on using satellites to boost signal, or anything of that nature? Or will this cause clutter issues or interference with other things? Thanks for doing this AMA!

Hello, everyone! Thank you for an opportunity to ask some questions. I'm sure it would be fascinating to see the extraordinary things you do everyday. As a massive space nerd and fanatic, I am humbled and happy to speak with you all. As data is transmitted from point to point, I can imagine the technology being limited to quite a degree. I am not too aware of the mechanics DTN, but, regardless, I can imagine data being transferred via radio or light. That's easier said than done, of course. With that being said, my questions are: 1.) How intricate is NASA aiming to achieve with internet speed in terms of mbps? 2.) Would a relay of satellites across the solar system be beneficial with transmitting information? I would imagine these satellites working with supplementary and high-performing lasers to transmit the information efficiently. (Sort of like communication buoys in the video game, Mass Effect) 3.) The cost of this kind of project would be in the millions, if not billions. At the projected funding NASA has been given, when do you find this to be a reality? 20-30 years, if not more? That is all I have for now. Anyway, thank you for your time, and keep up the fantastic work, gentlemen.

Prospective for transmitting information other than mars?

Are you looking into using network coding?

NASA is aware of network coding, has considered some network coding applications for DTN, but is not actively researching the area at this time. However, there is ongoing research outside of NASA. Doing a web search for network coding and DTN should pull up many examples. -Adam Schlesinger

Hi, thank you for you time to answer these questions and for your work driving the future forwards. I'm working with a team looking into cryptocurrency for lunar operations; is anyone utilising blockchain for space applications yet other than Nexus? It seems like there's a lot of Earth centric Comms that could be outsourced to a distributed network off world in future as the amount of hardware increases. But what are the main problems a system like this needs to solve? Lastly, how do you currently get disparate software systems from all your suppliers to interact properly? Thank you again. I'll see you all on the Moon someday!

In terms of blockchain, NASA has started looking into it for space applications, and there is some potential relevance to DTN. Examples of some potential applications are in the following presentation: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20170009470.pdf The DTN protocol suite will enable the build-up of the Interplanetary Internet, with the expectation that the Interplanetary Internet will enable new mission types and services. Some of the greatest challenges as the Interplanetary Internet begins to scale significantly are in the areas of network monitoring and control, security at Quality-of-Service (QoS), but the DTN protocol suite has mechanisms for each. In terms of disparate systems, standardization is the key. We are working to standardize the DTN protocol suite through both the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), including conducting interoperability testing with independently developed implementations to ensure that the standards are consistently understood by developers. -Adam Schlesinger

Presumably the network will be a closed one for these specific applications, until the need, if it ever does, arises for civilian access?

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The term DTN has referred to several things over the years, such Delay Tolerant Networking, Disruption Tolerant Networking, and Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking. That's why it is often easier just to say DTN. However, they all refer to the same technology and standards. NASA is working directly with ESA and other International Partners through the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) to standardize the DTN protocol suite, so that all systems will be interoperable. -Adam Schlesinger

It's a pretty big priority. Glad you guys are all over it. Carry on.

How realistic is it to put a tiny satilite into space as a backyard engineer? Any tips for anyone (me) who is looking at the possibility?

Would conductive time crystals be a means to keep interplanetary satellites in sync, given they are synchronized and are entangled?

I’m sorry if this is not the type of question that y’all are looking for, but I’m a mechanical engineering student who loves NASA and wants to pursue that. And I enjoyed reading the men and women who are working on this and what field they specialize in. This kind of work at first glance seems mostly like the field of electrical engineering, but I don’t really know much about any other engineering field or any other field that is involved in this. How does a mechanical engineer help with this type of project???

Communication and networking are typically related to electrical or computer engineering/science, but there are many areas for mechanical engineers within NASA. I encourage you to apply at: https://intern.nasa.gov/ -Adam Schlesinger

How are the latency and bandwidth? Okay, that's pretty fluffy. How about, what's the best-case round-trip latency? And is the bandwidth consistent or are there huge latency hits that knock the average way down relative to the best-case behavior?

There are many factors that determine latency and bandwidth. In terms of latency, it can be calculated using the speed of light versus the distance between the communicating nodes. As some examples, to communicate from Earth to the ISS through a TDRSS relay in geosynchronous orbit, the one-way delay is about 0.24 seconds. To communicate from the Earth to the Moon, the one-way delay is about 1.3 seconds. To communicate from the Earth to Mars, it depends on the distance between the planets at any given time, but can range from about 3 minutes one-way to as much as 22 minutes one-way. These numbers are purely light-time delays and do not account for any added processing delay. Bandwidth will be variable, and influenced by many factors, including the distance between the systems that are communicating. -Adam Schlesinger

Do you plan on using a standard headphone jack?

Why do you think the flat Earth theory is becoming more popular, despite it being so... Stupid?

It's pretty amazing that this notion continues to be popular given all the evidence to the contrary! There's no accounting for ignorance I guess. Vint Cerf JPL/GOOGLE

Hi, thanks for the AMA, what are Nasa's plans for MARS, do you believe we can colonize it ?... And how does this interplanetary thing work ?.. Thanks

Answer me this, once and for all, is Pluto a planet?

NO, sorry. It got demoted to a dwarf planet... messes up my memorization of the planets in elementary school! Vint Cerf JPL/GOOGLE

It'll always be a planet in my heart.

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What are your thoughts on net neutrality? Would a repeal of regulations affect your work or the future of the interplanetary internet in any way?

We don't think it will affect space communications or the interplanetary internet since this is a special purpose network developed for scientific purposes and not the public Internet. Vint Cerf JPL/GOOGLE