Once a joke, now for real: Google heading for space

Written on 28th October 2008                                                                                                              COMMENT
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Google’s best April Fool’s joke of the year definitely was their Mars mission with Richard Branson, called Virgle. Back then, we laughed about Google’s space plans, but now – in rough financial times – Google seems to be serious.

Gizmodo reports that the cocreator of the Internet and Google VP Vint Cerf and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have combined forces to create a standardized Internet for space. This system should ultimately replace the old troubled radio equipment systems that go back as far as the Cold War.

When that time has come, the new web can connect manned and robotic spacecraft and will form the backbone of a communications system that reaches across the entire solar system. First testing sessions will take place aboard the International Space Station in 2009.

Yeah, I think it’s fair to say that such an Internet connection goes far beyond the fantasy of many geeks. Cerf will make it reality though. He’s now figuring out new protocols that will work in space – facing the challenges of the enormous differences and constantly changing positions. When his baby is done, it will be baptized the… (here it comes).. “Interplanetary Internet“.