Extending Cyberspace Into Outer Space
Dot Mars, Economist
“Cyberspace is noisy, chatty and well-connected. Space, by contrast, is not. Communication between Earth and spacecraft is clunky and reminiscent of the days when switchboard operators had to plug in telephone lines by hand to connect the people at either end. But that is now about to change. America’s space agency, NASA, has been researching what it calls the delay- (or disruption-) tolerant network protocol, or DTN. The idea is to introduce to space the automated protocols that enable seamless communication on the terrestrial internet.”