IPN project funded by NASA in collaboration with DARPA, is supporting a team of scients at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Houston, Texas. The objective behind the IPN project is to build an architecture for a future inter-planetary internet by setting nodes across the solar system for connecting the Internet on Earth with the internet of other planets and spacecraft. IPN is to be used for deep-space data communications between earth, Mars and other planets. The basic components of IPN are NASA's Deep Space Network ( an international network of antennas to continuously track data and control navigation of spacecrafts), a six micro-satellite constellation around Mars, and the appropiate protocols. Challenges facing IPN include reducing delay in data transmission, figuring out the protocols, satellite maintenance, availability of domain names, and security from hackers. A link to Mars is planned by 2008.

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Well, I suppose a network like this is needed, but with our current technollogy level the ping times and overall net speed will be terrible. Oh well, WoW with a party from Earth, Luna, and Mars is not going to be a reallity any time soon.

I am happy, though, that NASA is looking ahead. High-speed conectability insystem will take perhaps around or over one hundred years even if we had a major breakthrough in physics, but a decent speed network would be nice for colonists if/when we get to that phase.

Now just to develop an extra-solar extranet...

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