Part of the Internet Hall of Fame’s inaugural class, Cerf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols. Since 2005, he has been a vice president and “Chief Internet Evangelist” for Google, promoting the web’s capabilities.
In a recent interview with Data Center Dynamics Magazine, Cerf talked about his efforts for more than two decades to expand delay tolerant networking protocols into space, thus creating the backbone for an inter-stellar Internet.
“Well, to the degree we’re interested in exploring the solar system and understanding the physics of the world we live in, space exploration is certainly increasingly now considered a valuable enterprise from the scientific point of view,” he said.
“And in order to effectively support manned and robotic space exploration, you need communications, both for command of the spacecraft and to get the data back. And if you can’t get the data back, why the hell are we going out there?”
