WPI using International Space Station to test clearer Earth-to-space communications

Photo/Courtesy Alexander Wyglinski, professor of electrical and computer engineering at WPI, right, with WPI graduate researcher Max Li. The two worked on a project that's working to improve communication channels between Earth and space missions.

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By Grant Welker

Researchers from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and other schools are using the International Space Station to test space communications they say could have major implications for future space missions.

In part, WPI said, the research uses artificial intelligence to address ways to reduce or eliminate interrupted communications and guard against disruptions caused by space weather and other impairments astronauts and science mission spacecraft face.

Alexander Wyglinski, professor of electrical and computer engineering at WPI, received $124,000 from NASA to study the issue. He and the other researchers — from Pennsylvania State University and the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland — used an algorithm to develop a communications method to adjust to changes to communications channels. As a result of that ability, communication methods can be adjusted immediately to compensate for a space environment making discussions between Earth and space missions difficult.

“This new framework is a game-changer for performing wireless communications in space,” Wyglinski said.

Included in the research was WPI student Max Li, a graduate researcher, who spent several weeks at the NASA Glenn Research Center testing the system.