I read this the other day and found it interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet

I read this the other day and found it interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet Apparently NASA had plans for launching an orbiter specifically as an optical communications hub for Mars but scrapped it in 2005: "As of 2005, NASA has canceled plans to launch the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter in September 2009; it had the goal of supporting future missions to Mars and would have functioned as a possible first definitive Internet hub around another planetary body. It would use optical communications using laser beams for their lower ping rates than radiowaves."