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POPSHow Interplanetary Internet Will Work Wiring the Solar System Take a look at the the 1997 Mars Pathfinder rover mission and you will understand space explorers need an interplanetary Internet for deep space communications. Data from the Pathfinder trickled back at an average rate of about 300 bits per second during its mission. Most likely, your computer can transfer data at least 200 times faster than that. An Internet between Mars and Earth would likely yield a data transfer rate of 11,000 bits per second. That is still much slower than your computer's transfer rate, but it would be enough to send back more detailed images of the Mars surface. Mars Network researchers think that the transfer rate could eventually go to about 1 Megabyte (8,288,608 bits) per second and allow anyone to take a virtual trip to Mars.
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POPSLife on the edge That throws up a tricky problem for engineers sending space craft to explore these alien worlds. What if the craft were to carry its own cargo of Earth microbes which set up home there?One major problem for any accidental interplanetary microbe would be how to survive the punishing radiation bombardment in space. Most would be rapidly frazzled en route. Most, but not all. Deinococcus radiodurans, nicknamed "Conan the Bacterium", is listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the "world's toughest bacterium". By rapidly replacing its DNA, it can survive cold, dehydration, vacuum, acid and a hefty radiation dose. Its Latin name means "terrifying berry that withstands radiation".
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POPSSupply Chains in Space! Leave it to the brainiacs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to think about the provisioning of interplanetary fixed based stations. Engineers at MIT, Olivier de Weck and David Simchi-Levi have created a tool called SpaceNet, which models movement of freight between Earth and stations on the moon. With transit times of up to 9 months on a mission to Mars, supply chain execution in space would be difficult. Perhaps the moon will serve as a staging area for the future! Now how long until FedEx or DHL start advertising interplanetary Express services? When it absolutely positively has to get there...in 10 months!
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