Government Computer News reports NASA’s Deep Space Network is on the way toward becoming a true Internet in space, thanks to the agency’s research and investment in software-defined radios (SDRs). Also, the agency is preparing an SDR test module for the International Space Station that will be capable of connecting the station with an uplink of 100 megabits per second.
The platform, named the Communication Navigation and Networking Reconfigurable Testbed (CoNNeCT) will help NASA test waveforms based on the agency’s Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS), NASA’s own standard for space-rated software-defined radio systems.
NASA plans on buying more than 1,000 STRS-based radios between now and 2025, but the price of these radios — between $1 million and $5 million — makes STRS radios a potentially $1 billion market for radio developers.
