Engineers from the Operating Missions as Nodes on the Internet (OMNI) project at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center have successfully pinged a satellite. This means they can control the space-bound object via the Internet. An OMNI team uploaded standard Internet software to the orbiting UoSAT-12 micro-satellite deployed in 1999 by UK-based Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. After activating the software , they sent a series of pings resulting in the echo-like response which confirmed that the satellite was operating normally as a Net connected device. Communication service providers have used satellites to provide the infrastructure of Internet for more than two decades, but OMNI satellites didn’t have their own Internet IP address and could not recognise Internet messages… until now. At the moment data from NASA missions has to be converted at ground stations before it’s forwarded onto Internet-based scientists. The links between these ground stations and spacecraft require expensive specialised hardware and unique, custom communications protocols to package the data. Not for much longer. The UoSAT-12 is now using only standard Internet protocols and technologies for communications. This eliminates the need for conversion when the data ?hits the ground? and connects the end-user scientist directly to the spacecraft.

?These early tests are generating a lot of interest in the space community,? said OMNI Project Manager Jim Rash at Goddard. ?Several folks in the space business are excited by the mission simplifications and cost-cutting strategies afforded by the use of industry-standard Internet protocols.?But the ping demonstration of IP connectivity just the first of many tests to establish the capabilities NASA needs for real missions. Some of the vital, yet-to-be-tested technologies include mobile IP, multicast data distribution and IP security mechanisms.  The seemingly mundane but vital spacecraft clock synchronization has already been demonstrated. It allowed the spacecraft to access the U.S. Naval Observatory?s World Wide Web site to calibrate its own clock. Another test next month will use standard File Transfer Protocol to test reliable file transfers. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol will be used to demonstrate automated file store and forward tasks. Hopefully no ambitious hackers will decide to take the satellite walkies in the meantime?