Max More wrote:
> Cassini *should* have a Webcam so that we can see the vantage point of "We
> are transhumans" as the Extropic Art Manifesto recedes ever-farther into
> space. Perhaps you wouldn't see much most of the time, though it could be
Interestingly enough, Vinton Cerf is right now developing TCP/IP derived
protocols for interplanetary Internet (InterPlaNet? ;) Oh, I see he's calling
it just that:
http://www.worldcom.com/about_the_company/cerfs_up/presentations/interplan/
). The problem set is similiar to relativistic ACK delays when traffic is
routed via GEO. If your relativistic lag is in minute range, and you're sending
with a high bitrate you obviously need very deep buffers, or a new paradigm.
Essentially, you're forced to go to a 'fire and forget' type of communication,
the bits receding from you like tracer bullets. Packet loss might be delegated
to application layer.
Anyway, they'll probably put up quite a few relays and only for the
planned Mars missions, so you either get higher bitrate or can go with
lower power transmitters. I wonder why space probes don't carry redundant
solid state cameras (you can make them pencil-eraser sized these days),
as they would be very handy for orientation in space. Instead of a single
navigation star you look at a dot pattern in a CCD array, and if you
track planets and planetesimals and know their ephemerids you can even
find out where you are, and what your speed vector is. And of course
you could use the nodes for relativistic pings, for a solar positioning
service, too.
A time-collapsed sequence of stills showing the Earth visibly receding and
the Sun turning into a yet another star would be truly cool to see. NASA
could sell the tape to news agencies, or to Hollywood (but hurry, the
VFX are getting better day by day).
> made very interesting using augmented reality-type overlays (such as in
> Distant Suns or other astronomy programs).
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