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Interplanetary internet proposed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer

We'll admit, we were admittedly metagrabolised after hearing that the US military wanted to launch a router into space, but now clarity is upon us. According to Vinton Cerf and a team of diligent engineers at the California-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory, standards for space communications could be established in just three short years, meaning that an "interplanetary internet" could be just around the bend. Cerf reckons that such a system would allow Earthlings to "access information and to control experiments taking place far away" from our planet, and in the distant future, there could even be an "interplanetary backbone [erected] to assist robotic and manned missions with robust communication." And while there's no mention of setting up galactic ISPs, we're pretty certain that lonely Martians would pay a pretty penny for quasi-reliable broadband access.

[Via TGDaily]