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We must upgrade the internet for Mars
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William Lee Adams is a London-based writer
can be worked out by using distant observations to get a global expansion measure, or using supernovae in nearby galaxies to gauge local expansion. The thing that has puzzled scientists is that the latter appears faster by a few per cent. Stuff in a cosmic void gets an extra pull from nearby dense regions, so this might explain the difference. If so, we would have to factor in the void to make sense of our observations. And we would all have to accept our seemingly odd position in a cosmic backwater. n Geraint Lewis is an astrophysics professor at the University of Sydney
INSIGHT Interplanetary comms
NADAV NEUHAUS
seen as more trustworthy. He could also turn mimicry to his advantage. Research shows that when a negotiator is copied for more than 5 minutes, they become more likely to reach an agreement with the other side. Can’t get a clear answer on postBrexit financial regulation or single market access? Again, mimicry might help. Coax the other side into revealing their cards by copying the key players’ posture and stance more closely. Fold your hands, crook your head, “um” and “ah” in time; a French study found that students were more likely to answer increasingly intimate questions if their interviewers copied such gestures. What if the Brits get backed into a corner? Take time out to have a rethink. If they can get in sync during the break they may find a way through. Stanford University research found bobbing heads in time, and moving arms and limbs in a coordinated manner led to more creative problem-solving. Ultimately, if all else fails, try a mantra, as they seem to promote brain activity that has a calming effect. Repeat “Brexit means Brexit” a dozen times and, fingers crossed, all will seem well again. n
–Colonisation plans are in peril–
We must upgrade the internet for Mars Leah Crane
Using this system to send one, high-definition colour image from Mars to Earth takes at least 30 minutes, so forget about the reality TV show. A single 22-minute episode would take nearly six days to transmit. That has serious implications for even our simpler plans: a slew of Mars missions due early next decade, including NASA’s Mars 2020 rover and SpaceX’s Red Dragon. The comms infrastructure lacks the bandwidth needed to cope with all five of the planned 2020s missions at once. Spreading the missions out won’t solve the problem because even
BY 2025, we’ll be a multiplanetary species: buying Elon Musk’s $200,000 tickets to go to Mars as those back home watch a reality show set there, while astronauts cruise around the Red Planet in buggies. Or not. These dreams are in jeopardy because of a little-known problem: the deteriorating communications infrastructure between Mars and Earth. This set-up could be inoperative by the mid2020s, leaving us unable to launch further landers and rovers, let alone get any useful scientific information “Forget about reality TV from them. We need to get serious on Mars – one 22-minute about building the interplanetary internet or, instead of colonising a new episode would take nearly six days to transmit” planet, we’ll be going nowhere fast. Right now, when either of the these limited comms will soon be current Martian rovers wants to gone. The orbiters are getting old and transmit something, it usually sends running out of fuel. Most won’t last it first to one of the five spacecraft beyond the mid-2020s. orbiting the planet, which relays it NASA has been aware of this to the Deep Space Network on problem for 20 years, but funding Earth. This set of three facilities is issues pushed it aside until recently. strategically placed around our planet In 2014, the agency issued a call for so that spacecraft communications can always reach at least one location. new orbiter ideas from companies,
while also working on its own concept for such a spacecraft. However, delays in funding for the 2017 fiscal year held back development of the orbiter even further and it’s unclear whether it could still be launched in 2022 as hoped. This means the craft won’t be there to provide data links for anything that needs to touch down on Mars. The planned missions will just have to hope that the existing infrastructure holds up. But maybe we need to think bigger. Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the internet, started working on its spacebased equivalent in 1998. Known as the interplanetary internet, it will have routers scattered around the solar system and may use lasers and complex codes to beam communications over long distances. It won’t be ready in time to help the next Mars rovers, though: its first node in space was installed on the International Space Station in 2009, but eight years on, there are no more. Indeed, the interplanetary internet may never be ready. Its development keeps getting pushed back because of more immediate concerns. But one lesson to take from this saga is that Mars missions require more than seat-of-the-pants planning. Without communications and other basic infrastructure, everything else will fail. We should have started on it 20 years ago, but let’s at least not put it off any longer. n 24 June 2017 | NewScientist | 25
William Lee Adams is a London-based writer
can be worked out by using distant observations to get a global expansion measure, or using supernovae in nearby galaxies to gauge local expansion. The thing that has puzzled scientists is that the latter appears faster by a few per cent. Stuff in a cosmic void gets an extra pull from nearby dense regions, so this might explain the difference. If so, we would have to factor in the void to make sense of our observations. And we would all have to accept our seemingly odd position in a cosmic backwater. n Geraint Lewis is an astrophysics professor at the University of Sydney
INSIGHT Interplanetary comms
NADAV NEUHAUS
seen as more trustworthy. He could also turn mimicry to his advantage. Research shows that when a negotiator is copied for more than 5 minutes, they become more likely to reach an agreement with the other side. Can’t get a clear answer on postBrexit financial regulation or single market access? Again, mimicry might help. Coax the other side into revealing their cards by copying the key players’ posture and stance more closely. Fold your hands, crook your head, “um” and “ah” in time; a French study found that students were more likely to answer increasingly intimate questions if their interviewers copied such gestures. What if the Brits get backed into a corner? Take time out to have a rethink. If they can get in sync during the break they may find a way through. Stanford University research found bobbing heads in time, and moving arms and limbs in a coordinated manner led to more creative problem-solving. Ultimately, if all else fails, try a mantra, as they seem to promote brain activity that has a calming effect. Repeat “Brexit means Brexit” a dozen times and, fingers crossed, all will seem well again. n
–Colonisation plans are in peril–
We must upgrade the internet for Mars Leah Crane
Using this system to send one, high-definition colour image from Mars to Earth takes at least 30 minutes, so forget about the reality TV show. A single 22-minute episode would take nearly six days to transmit. That has serious implications for even our simpler plans: a slew of Mars missions due early next decade, including NASA’s Mars 2020 rover and SpaceX’s Red Dragon. The comms infrastructure lacks the bandwidth needed to cope with all five of the planned 2020s missions at once. Spreading the missions out won’t solve the problem because even
BY 2025, we’ll be a multiplanetary species: buying Elon Musk’s $200,000 tickets to go to Mars as those back home watch a reality show set there, while astronauts cruise around the Red Planet in buggies. Or not. These dreams are in jeopardy because of a little-known problem: the deteriorating communications infrastructure between Mars and Earth. This set-up could be inoperative by the mid2020s, leaving us unable to launch further landers and rovers, let alone get any useful scientific information “Forget about reality TV from them. We need to get serious on Mars – one 22-minute about building the interplanetary internet or, instead of colonising a new episode would take nearly six days to transmit” planet, we’ll be going nowhere fast. Right now, when either of the these limited comms will soon be current Martian rovers wants to gone. The orbiters are getting old and transmit something, it usually sends running out of fuel. Most won’t last it first to one of the five spacecraft beyond the mid-2020s. orbiting the planet, which relays it NASA has been aware of this to the Deep Space Network on problem for 20 years, but funding Earth. This set of three facilities is issues pushed it aside until recently. strategically placed around our planet In 2014, the agency issued a call for so that spacecraft communications can always reach at least one location. new orbiter ideas from companies,
while also working on its own concept for such a spacecraft. However, delays in funding for the 2017 fiscal year held back development of the orbiter even further and it’s unclear whether it could still be launched in 2022 as hoped. This means the craft won’t be there to provide data links for anything that needs to touch down on Mars. The planned missions will just have to hope that the existing infrastructure holds up. But maybe we need to think bigger. Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the internet, started working on its spacebased equivalent in 1998. Known as the interplanetary internet, it will have routers scattered around the solar system and may use lasers and complex codes to beam communications over long distances. It won’t be ready in time to help the next Mars rovers, though: its first node in space was installed on the International Space Station in 2009, but eight years on, there are no more. Indeed, the interplanetary internet may never be ready. Its development keeps getting pushed back because of more immediate concerns. But one lesson to take from this saga is that Mars missions require more than seat-of-the-pants planning. Without communications and other basic infrastructure, everything else will fail. We should have started on it 20 years ago, but let’s at least not put it off any longer. n 24 June 2017 | NewScientist | 25