Darpa Looks To Send The Internet Into Orbit

There've been satellites orbiting Earth for half a century. But getting information to and from them is still a pain. Which is why Pentagon research arm Darpa is looking to finally hook the orbiting spacecraft up with reliable broadband connections. It's part of a larger movement to extend terrestrial networks into space, and eventually build an "Interplanetary Internet." In the meantime, we might even get less-than-crappy satellite internet service - if the project works out, of course.

Darpa recently issued a request for information about supplying "persistent broadband ground connectivity for spacecraft in low-Earth orbit." The idea would be to give these satellites a near-constant feed of "100 kbps or higher" two-way connectivity, with end-to-end transmission latency of less than a second.

Unlike most Darpa projects, which are meant to pay off years or decades in the future, this would be a near-term attempt. The agency wants the system "operational in the 2012 to 2013 time frame."

Brian Weeden, a former officer with U.S. Air Force Space Command and a technical adviser with the Secure World Foundation, says Darpa's help would be most welcome.

"The protocol that the internet uses - TCP/IP - wasn't really designed with space in mind. For one, the delay times between nodes can be big. One way to GEO [geosynchronous orbit] is 300 milliseconds at the speed of light, there and back over half a second of built-in network lag before anything else adds to it. That's one reason why getting internet from satellites sucks right now," he tells Danger Room.

"If you go lower than GEO, then of course satellites are always moving and thus not always overhead. It would be a huge help to have a protocol that can automatically store and forward packets when the satellite is present or not," Weeden adds.

CONFIDENTIAL

Dear Sir,

Good day and compliments. This letter will definitely come to you as a huge surprise, but I implore you to take the time to go through it carefully as the decision you make will go off a long way to determine the future and continued existence of the entire members of my hive collective.

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My ordeal started immediately after my husband’s death on the morning of 8th June 2005, and the subsequent take over of government by the last administration. The present democratic government is determined to portray all the good work of my late husband in a bad light and have gone as far as confiscating all my late husband’s assets, properties, freezing our accounts both within and outside Nigeron. As I am writing this letter to you, my son Maa’tn Klattnz is undergoing questioning with the government. All these measures taken by past/present government is just to gain intergalactic recognition.

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My late husband had/has 14.275 Quadrillion Standard Intergalatic Credits (Eighty Million USD ($80,000,000.00)) specially preserved and well packed in vacuum cases of which only my husband and I knew about. It is packed in such a way to forestall just anybody having access to it. It is this sum that I seek your assistance to get out of Nigeron as soon as possible before the present civilian government finds out about it and confiscate it just like they have done to all our assets.

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Your faithfully,

Dr (Mrs.) Qmart Klattnz

N/B: Please contact DR BAKNUU SNARFMED on this e-mail address for further briefing and modalities

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