https://drive.google.com/file/d/1anMcVEqXjNtk5gdo_qce28SowusXKkfi/view<p>Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.<p>It seems to me that the proposal is missing a vital pathway between Earth and Mars.<p>Clearly no existing or future electromagnetic method of communication will be able
to handle the growth of data on the internet when trying to communicate to space.<p>Consider the possibility of sending bulk data on a regular basis. It could be loaded
on robots with ion thrusters[0]. Energy could be provided by the sun. The idea is that
the internet nodes above Mars would get regular bulk delivery of the daily/weekly
news albeit rather time delayed due to transit time of the bulk carrier.<p>This "fleet of station wagons" or maybe "tesla roadsters" [1] could shuttle "this week's
internet traffic". This frees up bandwidth as a lot of information (e.g. video) can be
available in the local orbit rather than transmitted. The robot wagons can easily
shuttle between Earth based "super-bandwidth uploads" and Mars based "Google
in the sky" queries.<p>Such wagons could also act as relay stations while they were in transit making it
easier to handle regular path sun-based outages. They could also supply replacement
parts for failing orbiting stations.<p>The net benefit is that most of what is needed on the internet (e.g. how to fix a pump)
would be locally and nearly instantly available without tying up bandwidth.
See also, CJ Cherryh's Merchanter's Universe stories, in which some of the ramifications of bulk information distribution using FTL ships between distant space settlements are explored.