The mining of asteroids, space-based hotels, zero-gravity manufacturing and medicine -- they're all part of the future commercialization of space, according to a joint government and industry group that's developing the InterPlaNetary (IPN) Internet.
The first blueprints for extending the internet to other worlds have just been published. One of the fathers of the internet, Vinton Cerf, is leading the ambitious project to build an interplanetary internet and says that the first extra-terrestrial messages could be sent between Earth and Mars as soon as 2003.
MARS could soon be buzzing with its own internet. Nasa, the American space agency, wants to girdle the silent red planet with powerful satellites to help astronauts communicate with each other and with Earth. Starting next year the agency aims to launch a series of spacecraft that will form the building blocks of the new system. If Nasa succeeds in establishing a network of manned bases on Mars - perhaps as early as 2014 - the inhabitants should be able to send and receive e-mails.
Vint Cerf, the senior vice president for Internet architecture and technology at telecommunications company WorldCom is working on a proposal to create a network of Internets to facilitate communication between planets, satellites, asteroids, robotic spacecraft and crewed vehicles.
NASA and network gurus are working together to extend the Internet to other worlds in the next five years.