A strategy is being developed whereby the current set of internationally standardized space data communications protocols can be incrementally evolved so that a first version of an operational
?Interplanetary Internet? is feasible by the end of the decade. This paper describes its architectural concepts,
discusses the current set of standard space data communications capabilities that exist to support Mars
exploration and reviews proposed new developments. It is also speculated that these current capabilities can grow to
support future scenarios where human intelligence is widely distributed across the solar system and day-to-day
communications dialog between planets is routine.
The vision of future space exploration includes missions to deep space that require communication among planets,
moons, satellites, asteroids, robotic spacecrafts, and crewed vehicles. These missions produce significant
amount of scientific data to be delivered to the Earth. In addition, these missions require autonomous
space data delivery at high data rates, interactivity among the in-space instruments, security of operations, and
seamless inter-operability between in-space entities. The next step in the design and development of deep space
networks is expected to be the Internet of the deep space planetary networks and defined as the InterPlaNetary
(IPN) Internet. The Interplanetary Internet is envisioned to provide communication services for scientific
data delivery and navigation services for the explorer spacecrafts and orbiters of the future deep space
missions. All of these future space missions have a common objective of scientific data acquisition and delivery,
which are also the main possible applications of the Interplanetary Internet.
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