News that the U.S. military will put an Internet router in space may mark the final frontier for the little network that could, with Iris destined to remove the link with terrestrial networks in favor of satellite-to-satellite.From our news report yesterday: To send a message from one remote terminal to another via satellite today requires the first terminal to send the data to the satellite, from where it is bounced back to an earth station for routing. The earth station retransmits it to the satellite on a different frequency, selected depending on its destination, and the satellite bounces it back to its destination. With the router in space, the satellite can pick the channel used to send the message to its destination. By eliminating the message’s round trip to the earth station, operators can increase satellite capacity and reduce transmission times between remote terminals by using fewer hops and fewer frequencies for each message.Seems a little full-circle is at play here too: “Iris is to the future of satellite-based communications what Arpanet was to the creation of the internet in the 1960s,” Don Brown, of Intelsat General, one of the companies who will build the platform, told the BBC. I hope that means the end of Internet monopolies such as cable in the suburbs too. But grander things are in the stars, the BBC report says.With IP becoming more prevalent for use in space, Nasa and internet pioneer Vint Cerf have also investigated the possibility of using internet technology across the solar system. Although some work has been carried out on the necessary standards and protocols, no definite schedule has been announced for this interplanetary internet.Surely Cerf’s involvement in the movement means Google is thinking Interplanet Janet for the Internet too.Far out? Talk back to us. Technology Industry