NASA has successfuly conducted a first test of a deep space communications network modelled on the internet.
"This is the first step in creating a totally new space communications capability, an interplanetary internet,'' Adrian Hooke, NASA's manager of space-networking architecture, technology and standards, said.
The US space agency said Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers used software called Disruption-Tolerant Networking, or DTN, to transmit dozens of space images to and from a NASA spacecraft some 32.4 million kilometers from Earth.
NASA said the software protocol, which must be able to withstand delays, disruptions and disconnections in space, was designed in partnership with Vint Cerf, a vice president at search giant Google.
I can see it now, all the help threads entitled "How do i speed up my Torrent performance from Mars, i did a ping test and there were 356 trillion hops, i think my ISP is throttling me" :p
