Filecoin Foundation ventures into space with IPFS

Filecoin Foundation, responsible for facilitating the governance of the Filecoin Network, has announced its first-ever mission of deploying a decentralized filing system by leveraging the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) with the objective of improving communication among planets.

The mission will be held in space and hosted by Lockheed Martin’s LM 400 Technology Demonstrator spacecraft. It follows the May 2022 announcement of deploying IPFS with the aim of improving the speed at which data is transferred over long distances. Deploying IPFS into space with the spacecraft is the next step in the mission.

A need for the deployment arises because the centralized internet is not supported in space. Assuming it makes its way to space, a multi-second delay would end up being a huge problem, especially during a time when retrieving real-time data is an important aspect of all projects.

Marta Belcher, the Chair and President of the Filecoin Foundation, has echoed similar words to further explain how IPFS works. Marta has said that the system identifies data based on its unique Content ID. Users can retrieve the data with that ID from the server closest to their destination. The information travels the shortest distance instead of going through the lengthy process of several clicks.

Joe Landon, general manager and vice president of Lunar Infrastructure Service at Lockheed Martin, has also supported IPFS. According to Joe, the system will serve as the basic infrastructure and will make it simple for humans on the moon, in Earth orbit, and elsewhere to interact with those on other planets.

Joe has further committed that the LM 400 Tech Demonstrator will help show how the data is made available in space with IPFS in simpler ways.

The LM 400 Technology Demonstrator is a software-based satellite that is capable of supporting a wide range of projects. Using its SmartSat software-defined satellite technology, it will upload and carry out an IPFS demonstration. Applications utilizing IPFS will be able to retrieve data without determining the location of the ground station hosting the data.

Despite this, the data will be content-addressed through IPFS and made available on the IPFS network through a ground station. 

In addition to facilitating the governance of the Filecoin network, the Filecoin Foundation finances research and development projects and lends a hand to the community’s development of its ecosystem. The objective of the Filecoin Foundation is to preserve all the significant knowledge created by humanity over their lives.

IPFS is licensed, open-source software that facilitates the storage and distribution of data using content addressing. IPFS, which stands for Interplanetary File System, is the network’s basic technology. One of the system’s primary functions is to enable the fastest possible interstellar communication.

A current demonstration will lean towards the results of space-to-ground communication. Applications using IPFS will be able to see the results better.