From the beginning of the challenge we knew that devising a new device to reduce communication length between mars and earth was going to be challenging. After reading the Deep Space NASA resources provided we came across the Deep Space network explaining what DSN was and how it worked. Immediately we considered the thought of using lasers. They work and perform similar to fiber optics, but have the advantage of pointing to where it wants to go. However, that arose the problem of Solar Conjunction. To solve this issue we had an idea that seemed fairly practical, but expensive, that an additional satellite would be added to follow and rotate around Earth's orbit which could relay the laser pointing it towards Mars when needed. In addition, another reason to use lasers is because it is able to transport data in a more efficient manner than radio waves considering the distance is between 0.5(about 46480000 miles) to 1.5(about 139435807.2730724 miles) astronomical units that is absolutely insane! Unfortunately, creating a prototype laser to run our code within the 48 was definitely not going to happen. However, after everyone spent the day researching we came up with another idea. Why don’t we develop a communication platform that could transfer more within the limited bandwidth by optimizing the data to be smaller and lighter. So we concluded, the goal would be to create a reliable communication platform that would allow users to be able to communicate on Mars just like here on Earth by texting, sending pictures, videos, etc. But with the obvious rule that whatever the user decided to send they would be aware that the message would take some time to reach the other side. So in a perfect world, by utilizing our applications full potential of data optimization, and lasers for data transfer, you can imagine the potential this application has. That is why we decided to use gRPC for this project. gRPC has the ability of using API’s, Unary Client Streaming, Server Streaming, or both Bi-Directional Streaming. Additionally, we wanted to implement a streaming functionality using videos to make use of our now smaller payload. For example, If the client, which is on Mars, sent a single request to a server on Earth, then ideally after the delay for the request to reach the server and send a response reaches the client then the video they wanted to watch should receive a constant stream of data packets that allow the user to watch the video without buffering. Lastly, to test our application we wanted to use the direct access of NASA field tests to replicate scenarios of a long-distance communications.

We used NASA resources and official documents to guide us in our challenge. For example, the Deep Space resources explaining what Deep Space Network was and how it is being utilized now we were able to get an understanding of how the infrastructure in space was. This was a huge influence, because it guided us toward a reasonable solution. Having a better understanding of what the problems of communicating between Earth and Mars were led us to come to a project decision of developing a different way of communication.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1F7fTEN0r_fEOfsH_zVJOuO0vV60x8tAv?usp=sharing

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/scan/services/networks/deep_space_network/about

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdm/dsoc/index.html

https://area31.net.br/wiki/Redes_DTN

https://broadbandnow.com/report/internet-wifi-service-in-space/

https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/18475/current-maximum-bandwidth-between-mars-and-earth

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19950183