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

Re:TCP/IP

[bunyip]

Since RFC 1149 clearly works, then a few minutes of interplanetary delay shouldn't be too much of a problem.

More info on the JPL site

[ControlFreal]

This is actually a long-term project which, in 2015 (probably 2030 in reality ;) boasts a downlink of several Tbits per day to earth.

Check out the info here.

Re:Store and forward..

[evilviper]

The internet is that thing your e-mail goes over after you send it to your ISP via UUCP... :-)

Seriously though, batch networking is exactly what is needed for interplanetary networks. UUCP would fit the bill pretty well. Sure, they can hack TCP/IP to support a store-and-forward queue, but it's still a hack.