Recommendations on an Optimised Linux Server Operating System for the Deep Space Environment Operating systems used in the deep space environment are custom-built specific to the requirements of each mission. There is a high cost overhead associated with such an operational approach, which is one reason responsible for the slow rate at which deep space missions have been rolled out to date. Planning and design for the Deep Impact mission to probe a comet, for example, involved a development process lasting from November 1999 through to May 2001 [1] in the design of mission-specific hardware and software. The lack of a generic infrastructure and ability to rapidly deploy missions is therefore a limiting force on scientific exploration in this field [2]. Operating Systems used in the context of this MSc project will assume a range of objectives, such as life support for manned missions, scientific data collection, and hardware operation while maintaining overall power efficiency objectives and operational resilience. The objective of this project is to explore the resource footprint of a range of open source server Operating Systems (i.e., Linux (Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Fedora, Linux Mint, and Redhat) and Linux Cloud Operating Systems in (i.e., OpenStack and CloudStack)), Windows (i.e., Windows Server 2012), Apple (i.e., Mac X)) which may be generically used to support aspects of deep space missions, and assess their suitability for deployment on-board interplanetary hardware. This will also take into account licensed and open source packages which may support functionality and performance requirements on each. Investigation of this project will involve installing the selected server Operating Systems in a selected virtual environment, their configuration in a manner relevant for this domain, generation of data streams to feed into the Operating System and represent the way in which activity will take place in this domain, initiation of processes to monitor and manage collected data, and collection of a system resource footprint for each server. The output of this project will be a recommendation of Operating System options and/or choice, and its/their configuration to the Delay-tolerant Network Research Group (DTNRG) [3]. References: [1] http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpact/mission/#.U2t91vldXz8 [2] J. M. Reinert and P. Barnes, “Challenges of Integrating NASA’s Space Communication Networks,” in Proc. of IEEE Int. Systems Conference, Apr. 2013, pp. 475-482. [3] https://sites.google.com/site/dtnresgroup/home