The interplanetary Internet is a conceived computer network in space, consisting of a set of network nodes that can communicate with each other. These nodes are the planet's orbiters and landers, and the Earth ground stations. For example, the orbiters collect the scientific data from the Curiosity rover on Mars through near-Mars communication links, transmit the data to Earth through direct links from the Mars orbiters to the Earth ground stations, and finally the data routed through Earth's internal internet.
ICANN meeting, Los Angeles, USA, 2007. The marquee pays a humorous homage to the Ed Wood film Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959), and the operating system Plan 9 from Bell Labs, while namedropping Internet pioneer Vint Cerf using a spoof of a then-current film Surf's Up (2007).
The Deep Impact mission
Vinton Gray Cerf is an American Internet pioneer and is recognized as one of "the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with TCP/IP co-developer Bob Kahn.
Cerf in 2016
Vinton Cerf in Vilnius, September 2010
Cerf playing Spacewar! on the Computer History Museum's PDP-1, ICANN meeting, 2007
Cerf at 2007 Los Angeles ICANN meeting