The Future of the Internet is in Outer Space

While most of us are quite disgruntled with how our Internet works on Earth, NASA is working on extending the ubiquity of data networks to outer space. The new protocol, appropriately called DTN (Disruption-Tolerant Networking), has been tinkered with for over 10 years now. The system successfully passed a communications test involving one spacecraft and nine ground stations.

Imagine the difficulties involved in communicating in outer space. Planets tend to be several light minutes apart introducing extra latency into communications. Powering devices and maintaining line of sight communications in space are exponentially complicated. You could be disrupted by anything from a meteorite to a solar flare. Having a coherent back and forth conversation in such an environment is obviously complicated.

Who better to be working on solving this problem than Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf now associated with Google? Under his design each node of information is required to retain data in its autonomous memory until it is sure the information has been transmitted to the next node. This should result in less frequent disruptions.

As the network out there becomes more reliable, the thought of colonizing space becomes all the more palatable.