ICMP_HOST_BELOW_HORIZON - TCP/IP Into Orbit

Christopher Neufeld writes "As reported on ScienceDaily today, on April 10 of this year, some standard IP modules were uploaded to UoSAT-12, and got it answering pings. "

Comments

This will make Vint Happy

[David A. Madore]

Vinton Cerf (the "father" of the Internet, perhaps even without the quotes) is constantly talking about Internet in space, interplanetary Internet and so on. For example, in his celebrated essay (an Internet draft) "The Internet is for Everyone" (now the official motto of the ISOC), he writes:

"The Internet is moving off the planet. Already, an interplanetary Internet is part of the NASA Mars mission program now under way at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. By 2008 we should have a well-functioning Earth-Mars network that serves as the nascent backbone of an interplanetary system of Internets: InterPlaNet is a network of Internets. Ultimately, we will have interplanetary Internet relays in polar solar orbit so that such relays can see most of the planets and their interplanetary gateways for most if not all of the time."

To be quite honest, if I didn't have so much admiration for him, I would say that Vint is going just a bit off his rocker, there. But, who cares? The idea is fun, and if a man can't dream, what's left for him to do?

Did you know it, the ISOC has even formed an "Interplanetary International Special Interest Group" (IPNSIG).

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David A. Madore (ISOC member)

Re:How about some Amateur Sats?

[Tackhead]

And of course, I'm surprised nobody has suggested the obvious application:

Get Gold & Appel (or some similar organization) to launch a mess of "sats" into "orbit" at the Earth/Sun Lagrange points. Run something like "Freedom" on them. Give each sat a bunch of space-hardened (i.e. you need an atmosphere and some radiation and heat shielding) umpteen gigabyte RAID drives.

15 minute ping times, sure. But how the fsck will RIAA stop us from downloading MP3s when the servers are located in deep space? :) :) :)

All it takes is one .com billionaire with a really twisted sense of humor.

Im^H'm in but thel ag is horrribl^H^H^H^Hible

[SIGINT]

w^HWell i finally got a shee^Hll on the satellite, but thhe lag is so bad i can'''t ^H^H^H^H''^Ht even use lynx well. Man, and theres something wrong with they^Hir stty settings. Anyway, FIRSTT POST FROM SPP^HACE! :wq^H^H^H oh yeah, i'm not in vii^H

You'll have to ping farther than that.

[Tau Zero]

just something so cool about sending packets into outerspace and getting a response

Space scientists would disagree with you on that point. This satellite is in low-earth orbit (LEO), which is not technically considered to be "outer space". If you uploaded a TCP/IP stack to one of the Voyager probes or even Galileo, that would certainly qualify. How many million msec is your timeout again?
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