While that may seem like a ridiculous scenario, the requirement for internet connectivity on Mars is real. Landing human beings on Mars will need a tremendous amount of information transfer with Earth, which is not simple.
Astronauts on the International Space Station already have web gain access to, though they typically complain about its dialup-level speeds. And Internet leaders such as Vint Cerf have proposed protocols that would permit interaction between planets.
After years of effort and sacrifice, pain, and training, you become an astronaut and have lastly set foot on Mars. Time to publish your accomplishment on TikTok for that sweet social media cred.
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After years of effort and sacrifice, training, and discomfort, you become an astronaut and have actually finally set foot on Mars. While that might appear like a ridiculous scenario, the need for internet connection on Mars is genuine. Landing human beings on Mars will need a tremendous amount of information transfer with Earth, which is not easy. They propose constructing a constellation of satellites around Mars. As exploratory missions to Mars lay the foundation for crewed landing, a few constellation satellites might go along for the ride.
There are 2 primary difficulties in providing Internet connectivity to Mars. You cant lay fiber from Earth to Mars. The DSN is currently being pressed to its limitation, and we havent even had a crewed mission to Mars.
How to send cat photos to Mars. Credit: Pfandzelter, et al
. Among these concepts, as the paper details, is edge computing. You probably dont discover it, edge computing is why you can enjoy streaming services like Netflix and Disney+. It takes an incredible quantity of bandwidth to stream television and motion pictures, so streaming services disperse their servers to get you better speeds. When you have a look at the most recent Marvel series, Disney+ doesnt send you the data from Orlando, Florida, however rather a local server better to your home. This means that you do not have to wait long for the most recent IA-generated opening credits. It likewise means that the load is dispersed across servers, so no private one gets overwhelmed.
This most current work takes a look at what it would take to have an edge computing network around Mars. The secret is not just to have information locally accessible, however also to have a certain level of redundancy. So they propose developing a constellation of satellites around Mars. Their system would have 9 satellites each in 9 orbital aircrafts, for a total of 81 satellites. Just like numerous constellations, the satellites would communicate with each other to have redundant backups of data. This means numerous landing sites on Mars would be able to communicate with 2 or 3 satellites at any given time. For extended objectives, ground-based servers could be utilized for even faster data retrieval.
Structure such a system would not be inexpensive, so the authors propose developing the constellation in stages. As exploratory missions to Mars lay the foundation for crewed landing, a few constellation satellites could go along for the ride. By the time long-lasting stations are being developed, the constellation could already remain in location.
So who knows, by the time you set foot on the red world, the Internet may just be ready for you.
Referral: Pfandzelter, Tobias, and David Bermbach. “Can Orbital Servers Provide Mars-Wide Edge Computing?” arXiv preprint arXiv:2306.09756 (2023 ).
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