** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **

Here’s a question.

What is a ‘best case’ scenario for what we could achieve with solar system wide data networking and communications?

I get that latency can’t get overcome due to the speed of light, but transmission rates overall surely can get faster.

Is it a case of where we are going to need hundreds of spacecraft operating purely as data relays? I presume so. Working in parallel, I assume there would not be a hard upper limit on total bandwidth.

I’m just thinking about our current space missions, and the infrastructure we will want in the future.
 
Guess you just need to look at what happens sending data over a ridiculously long cable.

Not sure how they send it now, I assume the way they transmit it as well is also limited.
 
I think one of the limitations is power too, the Mars Rover only has a certain amount of power it can give to transmission of data the same as the relays.

I think the speeds of about 2mb they're getting from the relays is incredible. There's still people in this country that can't get speeds that fast on adsl.
 
The future of long sale solar system comms is really only going to happen when we understand and then harness things like quantum entanglement for information transfer. Our local technology needs to forward several generations at least to get anywhere close though, and then those new relays need to be sent out there but hopefully by then propulsion will be far more advanced too so could get to those locations faster.

That could in theory offer instantaneous data transfer between A and B regardless if distance.
 
Not if it’s named New China first. All your planets are belong to us.

Also, I really wanna see a rover land with a drone attachment that can go fly over Valles Marineris and by Olmypus Mons and take some pics/footage.
 
Delvis said:
Guess you just need to look at what happens sending data over a ridiculously long cable.

Not sure how they send it now, I assume the way they transmit it as well is also limited.
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I mean they have regular wireless/radio wave based communications. Typically, the rovers are communicating back via the Mars Relay Network (including satellites like the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) that then transmits the signal back to Earth.

Unfortunately, you can't quite tether big cables to everything because everything is in constant motion.

mrk said:
The future of long sale solar system comms is really only going to happen when we understand and then harness things like quantum entanglement for information transfer. Our local technology needs to forward several generations at least to get anywhere close though, and then those new relays need to be sent out there but hopefully by then propulsion will be far more advanced too so could get to those locations faster.

That could in theory offer instantaneous data transfer between A and B regardless if distance.
Click to expand...

I don't think that is quite true. Previous generations of our civilisation went off to explore far off lands beyond the horizons and establishes colonies that were weeks if not months away. We will be okay with a significant time delay in comms. We already have experience with this with our deep space probe missions.

My question really comes down to pure bandwidth. If a colonies beyond the asteroid belt want to keep in contact with Earth, they probably want to do so in a manner that isn't just restricted to 2mbs up/down. There will be a wealth of scientific data, admin to transmit, and that's even before personal luxuries.

So is it just going to be a brute force effort of lots and lots of satellites and transmitters/receivers? Perhaps laser communications?

Looking further into this, Interplanetary Internet is proposed based on a 'store and forward' communication protocol that is specifically designed for extremely long distances and is delay tolerant. I just can't see anything about how MUCH data we are hoping to transmit.
 
chef-borjan said:
Perhaps laser communications?
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Optical comms is the next step for bandwidth and there's been a handful of demo platforms that have shown Gb ground up/downlinks and multi Gb for inter-sat links and (parts of) Starlink and, i believe, JDRS-1 is already capable of doing that.
A load of more demo platforms going up in the next few years, LCRD, DSOC etc, to demo longer distance space laser comms and I don't think we're too far from laser relays being a common thing in space.
 
mrk said:
China's Mars rover has entered Martian orbit now before entering landing phase. Neat.

https://apnews.com/article/china-mars-rover-enters-orbit-4d6a32e39bdb73d4ec463e98e16f05c0
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KHasDa3.jpg
 
visibleman said:
Optical comms is the next step for bandwidth and there's been a handful of demo platforms that have shown Gb ground up/downlinks and multi Gb for inter-sat links and (parts of) Starlink and, i believe, JDRS-1 is already capable of doing that.
A load of more demo platforms going up in the next few years, LCRD, DSOC etc, to demo longer distance space laser comms and I don't think we're too far from laser relays being a common thing in space.
Click to expand...

That's good to hear, and especially that this technology doesn't seem too far away. I'm always sure greater minds than my own are working on any problems I can come up with...

I think larger bandwidth comms will massively help us to establish lunar and Martian colonies as well, if you can send and receive a lot more data it will reduce the need for the missions to be so self-reliant. Being able to 'phone a friend' for help can only be a good thing.
 
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