

Moon Colonists: Expect 3000ms ping times using Lunar Net - farkinga
http://www.rtfa.net/2009/12/08/attention-lunar-colonists-expect-3000ms-ping-times-when-using-lunar-internet

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ax0n
I had 3000ms latency on a 1200bps SLIP connection. Damn entitled kids these
days. _shakes cane_

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ax0n
Wow. I was _so_ expecting that to get downmodded.

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EricBurnett
Ping times will be high for some sites, but I doubt Google will be one of
those. As soon as this Lunar Net goes up Google will have a server on the moon
faster than you can say 'light-speed delay', so all your favourite Google
services and YouTube videos will be available locally with nice low ping
times. It's the rest of the internet you'll have to wait for.

~~~
garyrichardson
Yes, Google will have servers on the moon, but I doubt they'd have a mirror of
all youtube.

Latency wouldn't necessarily affect watching a youtube video -- sure it would
start slower, but latency != bandwidth. If you set your TCP window size high
enough and could ensure low packet loss you could get some pretty fast
transfers going.

I suppose that also assumes gigabit+ radio links to span the distance.

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electromagnetic
Agreed, but to mirror all of youtube is redundant, the vast majority of people
only watch the most popular videos. By providing a selection of 'this weeks
best' you will surely provide low latency for the majority of files. Similarly
ISP's can start doing site caching for popular pages providing lower latencies
for popular sites and pages.

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protomyth
you gotta admit, servers on the moon would be the perfect off-site backup.

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alex_c
Well, not quite perfect, you'd actually need a "server got hit by a meteor"
contingency plan.

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protomyth
yeah, but you get rid of all those nasty weather-related contingency plans.

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Hoff
Until a solar storm rolls through.

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Daemmerung
3000ms ping times were not unheard of in the early Starband satellite-
broadband days.

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joblessjunkie
I recall hearing Ted Nelson talk about his infamous Xanadu hypertext system
some 20 years ago. At one point in his description, he quite seriously warned
that "the system will be somewhat less responsive from the outer reaches of
the solar system."

I gotta admit, the guy knew how to dream big.

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xal
That's 3 times faster then my Hyatt here.

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dkokelley
By the time we have to worry about moon latency, I'm pretty sure all hosting
companies will include a moon mirror.

How expensive could it be to mirror the entire internet? This is the future
we're talking about.

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theli0nheart
...and the race begins to start the first interplanetary hosting company.

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zandorg
When is it cheaper to 'sneaker send into space' on a DVD, than transferring
bits?

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stilist
Apparently you can get stuff into space for as little as USD$400/kg [1] and a
plain DVD weighs 16g [2]. Naïvely assuming ‘space’ to simply mean ‘Kármán
line’ and discounting the cost of actually landing on the Moon, I estimate
USD$24600 to get the DVD the average distance of the Moon [3].

[1]:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator_economics#Costs_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator_economics#Costs_of_current_systems_.28rockets.29)
[2]: <http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_a_DVD_weigh> [3]:
[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28avg%28363104%2C+4056...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28avg%28363104%2C+405696%29+km+%2F+100+km%29+*+%28%24400+%2F+%281kg+%2F+16g%29%29)

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joblessjunkie
Moon Wal-Mart will probably sell DVDs as a loss leader at around $24,588,
putting all those poor mom-and-pop Moon stores out of business.

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DTrejo
The silver lining: moon computers won't need expensive cooling systems.

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DanHulton
Actually, they will. Vacuums don't do shit for getting rid of heat. If
anything, they'll need MORE expensive cooling systems.

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Andys
And don't forget all the extra shielding you need to protect circuitry from
solar winds.

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w00pla
Or you could use Athlon Duron processors.

In that case, the solar winds would need extra circuitry to protect it from
the heat of the processor.

