From New Scientist:

The interplanetary internet now has its first permanent node in space, aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The new software will make sending data from space less like using the telephone, and more like using the web. In the modern era of the web and information on demand, teams still have to schedule times to send and receive data from space missions.

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The payload recently sent down its first science data – images of crystals formed by metal salts in free-fall – using the new programming. Its new capability has already speeded up the transfer of data back to Earth by about four times, says BioServe’s Kevin Gifford. If data is lost during a link, the system automatically transmits lost data later. Until now someone had to schedule a second attempt.

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While the Earth-bound internet uses a protocol called TCP/IP to allow distant machines to communicate over cables, the ISS payload uses delay-tolerant networking (DTN), which is being developed to cope with the patchy coverage in space that is arises when spacecraft pass behind planets or suffer power outages.

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The protocol could also benefit space station operations by automating space weather alerts (see Space storm alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe)

Previously:

• YES! The ‘Interplanetary internet’ is coming…