NASA may or may not be enlisting the help of ET for their internet work
This is a bit of old news but still interesting nonetheless. NASA is developing an interplanetary internet framework that would allow faster communication between earth and other planets, which is necessary because the current system is so slow. The agency is eyeing Mars in particular because the current goal seems to be to get a manned mission to Mars. In order to have better communication between Earth and Mars, more satellites will need to be put into orbit around Mars. Also, NASA is developing a new internet protocol called Delay Tolerant Networking, or DTN, to allow them to send data between computers that could get lost easily. There’s an excellent article on discovery.com about this new technology, as well as howstuffworks.com
5 Comments
I wonder what the first case of interplanetary spam will look like?
I am particularly pumped about this new development. Uploading photos on Mars has always been painstakingly slow for me. I assume this framework will speed things up, unless the problem is the operator and not the connection. Hmm.
He forgot to mention that you can only get the faster speed connection if you sign up for the bundle that includes video phone and basic cable. (Which is good, because the farther out you get from Earth, the older the TV programming has been.)
So I could watch I Love Lucy on Mars anytime I want?
No, you’re forgetting the time to travel there at sub-light speeds. When you get there it’d be just in time for the first Battlestar Galactica series.
By the way, check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ET_Communicator_Cropped.jpg