clipped from www.newscientist.com

NASA has finished its first deep-space test of what could become an 'interplanetary internet'. The new networking commands could one day be used to automatically relay information between Earth, spacecraft, and astronauts, without the need for humans to schedule transmissions at each point.

NASA successfully tested an internet-like protocol for space, which could some day automate communication with craft and bases beyond Earth's orbit (Illustration: NASA/JPL)

Spacecraft usually communicate directly with Earth - the first to do so through an intermediary were the Mars Explorations Rovers, which launched in 2003. The Spirit and Opportunity rovers transmit data to orbiters, which then send the data back to Earth.

Last week, NASA completed a month-long test of a simulated network of Mars landers, orbiters and mission operations centres on Earth.

Also transmitted were a four-node diagram of the internet's ancestor, ARPANET, and a photograph of networking visionary J C R Licklider.