Planning and Thinking Should Start Now for Interplanetary Internet: Experts
As humans head to the moon and Mars, they're on the verge of being able to launch an interplanetary internet, raising policy questions about that network's architecture and governance, space and internet experts said Tuesday at the Internet Society's Interplanetary Networking Special Interest Group seminar. The group's founder, internet pioneer Vint Cerf, said there needs to be thought and planning now about those policy issues and the agreements and institutions to tackle them.
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Given the distances between planets, real-time communication isn’t possible, said Alberto Montilla, co-founder of space internet startup Spatiam. Not only will those distances cause time delays, he said, but solar system communications will also have to compensate for the big signal losses that result. A one-way signal from Earth to the moon can take 1.3 seconds, while one to Mars can take several minutes, he noted, adding that receiving signals will require antennas with massive antennas and specialized -- and expensive -- electronics.
Yosuke Kaneko, space attache at the Japanese embassy in the U.S., said space communications today is point-to-point -- a simple architecture of a satellite and ground station. Expanding humanity into the solar system requires a networked approach of a “solar system internet” with a common structure, similar to Earth’s internet. Lunar activity will need infrastructure for communications and for positioning, navigation and timing, Kaneko added. There's already a LunaNet collaborative effort among space agencies, including NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, that's planning for such communications and PNT services, he noted.
There's also growing private-sector interest in lunar communications networks, with Nokia planning a demonstration of a lunar 4G network on a future NASA mission, Kaneko said.
Lockheed Martin has pending applications before the FCC regarding equipment for a lunar communications network and operation of its planned Parsec lunar communications system using the S, X and Ka bands (see 2305040005).
Cerf said spacecraft used for lunar and Mars missions could be repurposed as hubs of an interplanetary internet network that grows mission by mission. Kaneko predicted that in 30 years, a solar system internet could be a melding of space agency and private-sector networks into a backbone that connects Earth, the moon, Mars and potentially beyond.
The need for a common, interoperable network means using technical standards, open forums and a multi-stakeholder policymaking process -- the same steps that led to the interoperability of Earth's internet, Kaneko said. In addition, he noted that lunar internet raises numerous questions, such as whether governance would be done by space agencies, internet governing bodies or some combination.
A big challenge facing a solar-system-wide internet is that network links come and go due to planetary rotation issues and distances, unlike Earth's internet, Cerf said. A solar system internet needs to store data in the network for when there's a connection, and numerous planetary rovers today use that "store and forward" method, he said.