The nane

Curious is what you can call the news that we read today in The Verge.In full boiling of the arrival of Matter, the protocol (to control them all) that arrives to end Z-Wave or Zigbee and unify all ecosystems, one of the greatest achievements of humanity in this year is communicated through Zigbee.

This is the little helicopter that incorporates the Rover Perseverance that he has loved on the red planet.A helicopter that under the name of Naneity beat the scarce Martian gravity to take off and then used Zigbee to be able to be controlled at a distance.

Martian technology in house bulbs

That mixture of helicopter and drone called nane that flies over Martian land does not make use of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or something similar to communicate with Perseverance.To be able to send all the necessary instructions, the Usa Zigbee helicopter in the 900 MHz band.

Walking at home technology to activate the most exclusive drone ever manufactured.And it is that Zigbee is perhaps the protocol you use to open the door of your garage or even more by hand, the one you use at home if you want to activate a Philips Hue bulb by means of its bridge.

A news that has jumped into the Linux Unplugged Podcast and that attracts more attention when almost all large companies have opted for Matter, formerly called Project Connected Home Over IP (Chip).

At this point, the reason why this system has been used.And when everything seems to indicate that Matter will be the dominant protocol, Tobin Richardson, executive director of Zigbee Alliance and invited to the podcast, has affirmed that Zigbee has been chosen because it is the ideal wireless protocol to transfer telemetry data between the Rover PerseveranceNASA and flying drone.

Zigbee is a protocol with a very low energy consumption and on Mars there are not many plugs to resort to a possible lack of energy.That is why the same thing to be the link between a bulb and a hub, between the garage and the door, for sensors and in general for small devices...that for the greatest ingenuity we have seen this year.Zigbee is able to send information without errors and do it with minimal consumption.

In addition, according to the Zigbee Alliance, the chosen protocol, Zigbee, offers a great reach, which in an atmosphere as light as the Martian can extend beyond the line of vision.In fact, according to NASA, the nane helicopter is able to communicate with Perseverance from more than 800 meters, which become almost eight soccer fields.

It seems therefore that Zigbee has not yet said the last word and can still give a lot of play.And while on Earth we already want to replace it, on Mars it is the king of the party.