• New type of internet could be used between planets
• Successfully tested by sending pics over 32 million km to Earth
• Earth link: Race on to build world's first space elevator
A NEW type of internet that can send information in deep space has been successfully tested by NASA.
The technology sent dozens of images from a NASA spacecraft to Earth over 32.4 million km – almost ten times the distance between Earth and the moon.
This deep space internet may one day be used to transmit messages at the speed of light between planets.
So if humans do end up living on Mars, those of us left back on Earth may be able to Facebook them.
The new network, known as Disruption-Tolerant Networking, or DTN, is different to the internet used on Earth because it works over massive distances and is resistant to disruptions.
In space, planets and solar storms can disrupt communications and the sheer distance requires more time to transmit data.
For example, sending or receiving data from Mars takes between three-and-a-half minutes and 20 minutes at the speed of light, NASA said.
But unlike Earth's internet, the new network can "pause" during disruptions – it remembers what is being sent and can hold on to each packet of data until it finds the destination again.
"This is the first step in creating a totally new space communications capability, an interplanetary internet," Adrian Hooke, NASA's manager of space-networking architecture, technology and standards, said in a statement.
The new protocol was designed in partnership with Vint Cerf, one of the original internet pioneers and vice president of Google.
NASA said an "interplanetary internet" could enable many new types of space missions such as complex flights involving multiple spacecraft and ensure reliable communications for astronauts on the moon.
The International Space Station will begin testing DTN technology next year.
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