3 ms·
If we had space probes with ICMP support, you could use this to store data in the interplanetary æther.
by jf 11y ago
If we had space probes with ICMP support, you could use this to store data in the interplanetary æther.
- kej 11y agoYou don't need ICMP for that, or even an active space probe. Just encode your data in laser pulses and bounce it off one of the retroreflectors we've put out there. There are at least three on the moon, or the LAGEOS satellites (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAGEOS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAGEOS) would work.
- TranquilMarmot 11y agobrb, buying lasers
- jameshart 11y agoHmm - quick research shows that laser communications have been demonstrated at up to around 1Gb/s; given the roundtrip time to a retroreflector on the moon, you could have around a 300MB buffer in flight at a time. Average latency to read or change a particular byte would be about 1.2 seconds, so not ideal for high performance applications. Also, wouldn't work when the moon was below the horizon. Plus installing additional retroreflectors on the moon to increase capacity would be quite expensive.
- toast0 11y agoYou don't need more retroreflectors, just ground lasers far enough apart (and someone with more physics than me to make an argument about the waves not interfering at the reflector)