The overall goal of this project is to develop and implement a test-bed where we can experiment the possibility to apply the Internet of Things (IoT) framework and technologies to research on planetary explorations. Specifically, this project has the following three goals:
1) to experiment the IoT system for space explorations research and expose students and faculty to research on planetary explorations,
2) to design and implement an IoT platform with off-the-shelf components, better efficiency in processing large data, robustness to failures, and security mechanisms against attacks for NASAâs planetary explorations, and
3) to develop an IoT undergraduate/graduate technical elective course.

We have accomplished the following tasks through this project:
1) An IoT undergraduate technical elective course was created and offered during summer 2017. Specifically, I designed CS 494 (Cyber-Physical Systems) that exposed computer science students to learn how to use microcontrollers (e.g., Arduino and Raspberry Pi) to sense the environment (e.g., temperature), control motor, and create wireless control systems to communicating over the Internet. In the course, both hardware and software are integrated for providing the fundamentals for studying and applying future Internet of Things.
2) An IoT testbed for space explorations has been implemented. This testbed was built with the help of an undergraduate student, Ms. Urvi Joshi. We simulated the space explorations by using sensors to sense useful data (e.g., visual terrain information) and controlling the movements of robots on the planet (e.g., Mars) in the testbed. Specifically, we are able to connect a camera to Raspberry Pi and obtain live steam videos on a remote web browser. Furthermore, we are able to host the live streaming video on YouTube, as well as take photos and send them to an email address. Moreover, we can control the movements of a robot through a web browser.