Vint Cerf wants to make sure you can get email from the red planet.  We have gone from the 1970’s data uplink of 16 kbps to 2004’s uplink of 256 kbs.  Although we can’t get rid of the 20 minute delay, having a more reliable connection will help any future Mars Rover type missions.

No word on when the Barsoomian 419 scams will start coming
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“Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, now a Google VP, is leading a NASA effort to create a permanent network link to Mars within the next two years. As Cerf outlined in a recent talk, the ‘InterPlaNet’ protocol is designed to handle the delay caused by interplanetary distances. A signal traveling between the Earth and Mars can take up to 20 minutes.”

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