You'll often hear people, usually progressives, declare that without the government, there would be no internet. That's mostly wrong but there's a kernel of truth to it: A major government agency did have a hand in developing the technology that led to the modern internet we know today:
The origins of the Internet date back to the development of packet switching and research commissioned by the United States Department of Defense in the 1960s to enable time-sharing of computers. The primary precursor network, the ARPANET, initially served as a backbone for interconnection of regional academic and military networks in the 1970s.
Now, with the proliferation of satellite services that providers have launched in low-earth Orbit, the Department of Defense is stepping back into the game:
In their haste to get satellites up and running and beat out competitors, few of these satellite companies actually bothered to hammer out a set of standards that would let their satellites communicate with other firms' satellites. Enter DARPA, the Pentagon's gonzo research and development arm. As part of its Space-Based Adaptive Communications Node (Space-BACN) program DARPA is bringing together a team of experts to standardize communications between the ever-increasing hoard of satellites. The end goal, according to DARPA, is a type of "internet" of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites that lets civil, government, and military satellites easily communicate with each other.
The Department of Defense is on this like:
The question, of course, is: Can they do it?
Government is notorious for screwing everything up, all the time.
Of course, all they have to do in this case is hire a bunch of skilled technicians/contractors, turn them loose on the problem, and (hopefully) watch it get solved.
They seem confident about it:
DARPA believes streamlined communication between satellites can maximize the potential of satellite-enabled internet. Kuperman said it could be huge win for search and rescue operations across the globe.
"Today we're witnessing the birth of a new domain called proliferated space," Kuperman said. "This new space domain will usher in a new era of low-cost communications, sensing, and space exploration."
Yeah yeah all that noble stuff sounds great but personally I'm looking forward to the next generation of memes to start flowing through that new network!
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