HOW WE’LL BUILD THE INTERNET ON MARS
In 1971, David Bowie asked if there was life on Mars. In 2019 that kind of wide-eyed sentiment is a little dated. As the once-mysterious planet becomes the commercial trophy of intrepid billionaires, the questions concerning Mars are turning to the pragmatic. Life’s good, Silicon Valley says, but will there be Wi-Fi?
And while dispiritingly earthly, it’s a fair question to ask. After all, Elon Musk has stated that his SpaceX vessels could transport Mars-bound passengers “in 2024 with the arrival in 2025”. But without the ability to share a spacefaring selfie on Instagram, will anyone even bother going? Fortunately for the interstellar influencers of the future, the prospect of a Martian internet provider is on the horizon.
“Honestly, I think interplanetary internet is going to be much simpler than Earth-based internet,” says Robin Marx. “At least, interplanetary between Earth and Mars,” he clarifies. A PhD web performance researcher at Hasselt University in Belgium, Marx spends most of his time optimising internet protocols here on Earth, but his expertise could prove invaluable to
