Wireless sensor networks for space and Solar-system missions

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are multi-hop self-organizing networks which include a huge number of nodes integrating environmental measuring, data processing and wireless communications in order to apprehend, collect and process information to achieve defined tasks. A diverse set of applications for WSNs encompassing different fields have already emerged including environmental applications, inventory monitoring, military applications, intrusion detection, health applications, motion tracking, machine malfunction detection and etc. Among these application areas the use of WSNs can adapted to Space and Solar-system missions. In the last years, space-based WSNs have gained increasing attention from both the research communities and companies involved in space research. This paper outlines the usage of a space-based wireless sensor networks (SB-WSNs), which applies the concept of terrestrial wireless sensor networks to the space.