[dtn-interest] Interested in DTN, and some questions

["Walter L. Preuninger II" <[e-mail]>]

Hello All!

I just recently read about the ISS participation in DTN tests.

I am interested in DTN, and offer various distributed Raspberry PI machines, of which a few offer limited, sporadic connectivity. 

1) So, is there a concise HOWTO? I am confused by the dtnrg.org web pages with the various options.

Regarding interplanetary communications, I have a question or two.

For my question, let’s use Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter(MRO).

My very limited knowledge of celestial mechanics, and general spacecraft operations, are the root of these questions. 

The window of time that MRO can communicate with Earth varies on a day to day basis. In one of the NASA press releases, 1 way communications took 12 minutes.

2) We are about to come out of a communications blackout. Do we begin transmitting prior to the blackout ending, getting our signal in the aether as soon as possible, hoping that MRO will be ready?or do we wait? Does MRO (or other spacecraft) know the schedule of communication parameters of do we here on Earth feed it with those parameters on a regular basis?


Thanks to any input you may have to any of these questions.

Sincerely,

Walter L. Preuninger II