Space-Based In-Flight Internet

"In-Flight Internet From Space Takes Off"
Space.com (April 27, 2009)

"PARIS - Panasonic Avionics Corp. is continuing with its ambitious program to install satellite broadband links into long-haul commercial jets and is specifically continuing a large contract with EMS Technologies of the United States and Canada, and Starling Advanced Communications of Israel, to supply the Ku-band hardware, according to the three companies.

"The effort, which seeks to apply lessons learned from Boeing Co.'s abandoned Connexion program, is moving more slowly than expected because of the downturn in commercial air travel and slowdown in orders for new aircraft, according to David Bruner, vice president of global communication services at Panasonic...."

This is a pretty good look at another step toward a world where people can be connected to others, wherever they are.

For me, this is exciting stuff.

I was born during the Truman administration, when telephones weren't as common in America as internet connections are now. I remember what an incredible engineering a transcontinental cable was: and the first communications satellite.

When I was growing up, "the future" involved huge computers with fewer functions than the one that's on my desk, space ships that needed human crews, and robots that were a great deal less reliable than the one that's exploring Mars today. The Internet was dimly flickering at the edge of some stories: and pessimistically imagined in E. M. Forster's "The Machine Stops" (1909).

Now, I'm living in "the future." The flying cars are still in R & D, and we've got urban sprawl instead of supercities (aside from places like Manhattan and Hong Kong). But, we've got a global communications network that lets me visit (virtually) places I'd never be able to reach physically: and do research faster and about as effectively as I could in an ink-on-paper library.

It's an exciting world.