The Interplanetary Internet

Roland Piquepaille writes "This article from SPACE.com about the Interplanetary Internet (IPN) is not science fiction. It is becoming a reality, Rich Gray reports. "The IPN would form a backbone connecting a series of hubs on or around planets, ships, and at other points in space. These hubs would provide high-capacity, high-availability Internet traffic over distances that could stretch up to hundreds of millions of miles." Gray adds that all the planets and satellites in our solar system have already Internet addresses and that NASA is already communicating with its earth-orbiting missions through its internal Deep Space Network. The rest of us will have to wait until at least 2005 when IPN-equipped satellites are launched. Check this column for more details. You also can read a previous Slashdot column on the same subject. "

Comments

think of the gamers man!

[pilybaby]

I think the lag when playing HL2 with someone on Mars would be too much to take.

Re:think of the gamers man!

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, with the sort of timescales we're talking about here, you'd probably be playing Duke Nukem Forever.

Re:think of the gamers man!

[evilviper]

Obligatory Futurama Quote:

That's why scientists increased the speed of light in 2208!

I have to ask...

[Anonymous Coward]

all the planets and satellites in our solar system have already Internet addresses

So, whats the internet address for Uranus? http://ipn.myhomepage.ass ? or, .anus?

Store and forward..

[wfberg]

What's with this newfangled internet? Don't they have UUCP?

Hm.

[Some Woman]

There's just somethin odd about all other planets already having internet addresses. Is it just one per planet, or does each Martian get its own? I mean, one for an entire planet just doesn't seem fair, now does it?

GREAT

[Evil Adrian]

That's all we need, is some fifteen-year-old DDoS-ing the Hubble.

Does this mean...

[Bvardi]

Wben I tell the users in my office that their email vanished "somewhere into outer space" I might actually be telling the truth?

Seems like both a forward-looking and very practical idea - I personally hope to see manned stations/colonies/etc within various places in the solar system in my lifetime and it might be handy to have the ability to communicate with those places.

Mind you the scary bit would be tracking down interplanetary spammers! (The nigerian scam could become the martian scam!)

Squatters

[Steve1952]

Bad news! Most of the planetary sites are occupied by squatters. For example, some snack food company is sitting on mars.com...

Nip it in the bud

[redtail1]

You also can read a previous Slashdot column on the same subject."

Well, that's one way to prevent 40 people from submitting "repeat post" comments...

I've Said It Before And I'll Say It Again...

[PipianJ]

[luser@somebox luser]$ ping -c 4 www.pathfinder.mars

Pinging www.pathfinder.mars [178.223.52.43] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 178.223.52.43: bytes=32 time=2678674ms TTL=53
Reply from 178.223.52.43: bytes=32 time=2679146ms TTL=53
Reply from 178.223.52.43: bytes=32 time=2678608ms TTL=53
Reply from 178.223.52.43: bytes=32 time=2679568ms TTL=53

Ping statistics for 178.223.52.43:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 60ms, Maximum = 183ms, Average = 114ms

That's nearly 44 minutes round trip for light, and that's only to Mars at opposition. Imagine how long it is to Pluto at opposition. What is it that they say? It was 20-30 hours round-trip to contact Pioneer 10?

Hack the Planet!!

[override11]

Hehe, Takes on a whole new meaning now, eh?

Hrmm, if I ping flood the north pole will I cause global flooding? Hrmm, wonder if I can just chmod the boarders to keep terrorists out.. *grin*

Re:Times and firewalls

[Max von H.]

We don't need no stinkin' firewall. We got the Asteroid Belt, your packets will be lost in the collisions...

Interplanetary chat rooms: patience required!

[HarveyBirdman]

[BigDuud has entered chat room #marssex]

BigDuud: Anyone here?
(20 minutes pass)
BarsoomGirl: Just me it seems.
(20 minutes pass)
BigDuud: Wassup! I'm at Tycho City, Moon. Where you at?
(20 minutes pass)
BarsoomGirl: Utopia Planita base, Mars.
(20 minutes pass)
BigDuud: Cool! Are you nekkid?
(20 minutes pass)
BarsoomGirl: Yes, but only under my spacesuit.
(20 minutes pass)
BigDuud: Bummer.
(20 minutes pass)
BarsoomGirl: Yeah. We had a failure in the Windows2150 installation, and it caused a pressure imbalance that blew out the mail seals. I was in the shower when it happened. I'm all wet and soapy in here.
(20 minutes pass)
BigDuud: How long before it's fixed?
(20 minutes pass)
BarsoomGirl: Who knows? They admins are downloading the patch from the Redmond Arcology, but it's suposedly 50 billion terabytes for the copyright notice alone.
(20 minutes pass)
BigDuud: Bummer.
(20 minutes pass)
BarsoomGirl: This suit has a seismic vibrator, though. ;-)
(20 minutes pass)
BigDuud: Wicked! So, do you have big barsooms?

[Connection terminated. Link eclipsed by Phobos.]

HUH?

[Parsa]

These uninhabited planets are getting high speed backbones? I can't get anything more than dial up where I live!

J

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM GENERAL ZORGOFF

[Nova Express]

GREETINGS EARTHLING,
I HAVE AN IMPORTANT BUSINESS PROPOSITION FOR YOU. SHORTLY BEFORE THE MOST RECENT MARTIAN CIVIL WAR, I HAD 37,000,000 (37 MILLION) MARTIAN GORANS SITTING IN THE FIRST BANK OF MARS. HOWEVER, NOW THAT THE BLUE THARK HAVE TAKEN OVER THE MARTIAN GOVERNMENT, I HAVE NO WAY OF GETTING MY MONEY OIFF THE PLANET.

PLEASE PROVIDE ME WITH YOUR BANK ACCOUNT NUMBER SO I CAN TRANSFER THE FUNDS TO EARTH, AND I WILL BE GIVE YOU HALF THE 37 MILLION GORANS, WHICH IS WORTH OVER 50,000,000 (50 MILLION) OF YOUR EARTH DOLLARS. YOUR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION AND DISCRETION IN THIS MATTER IS GREATLY APPRECIATED.

- GENERAL GURLAK ZORGOFF