Surfing the Internet from outer space

Yi So-yeon

Vinton Cerf

Vinton Cerf, vice president of Google and often dubbed the father of the Internet, and Korea’s first astronaut Yi So-yeon discussed a variety of issues regarding the Internet during a 90-minute meeting at the headquarters of Google Korea in Yeoksam-dong, southern Seoul, on June 19.

Yi: I’m so honored to meet you.

Cerf: I’m delighted to be here. You know, you are living in the real world of science fiction because you’ve done something great. I hope to do some work in space that will things easier for when you go back.

Yi: Great. I really need that kind work.

Cerf: I have good news for you. Next year, we’re going to put new interproprietary protocols on the International Space Station. At the end of this year, we’re going to upload them to the Deep Impact spacecraft, which will then go into orbit. By the end of 2009, we will have spent two years testing the space Internet. We can then propose these protocols for all spacecraft. Our hope is anyone who’s in the space station can surf the earth-bound Internet.

Yi: Is it possible to use the Internet in space just like I use it at home? It was really expensive to use the Internet in space.

Cerf: Absolutely. What we imagine is scientists sitting in comfortable space stations interacting with spacecraft located somewhere else in space.

Yi: How does the space Internet work?

Cerf: An example of this is happening today on Mars. We just landed the Phoenix on the north pole of Mars. When data gets translated by the protocols, it doesn’t go straight back to Earth. It goes to an orbiting satellite where it is stored. When the satellite reaches the right position in its orbit, it forwards the data to a deep space network, which we call store and forward Internet communication.

What was it like when you got to the spacecraft? Did you change your views of the world?

Yi: Yes, they totally changed. Even though I’m generally an optimist, I criticized some people and complained about my environment and even my family. But when I saw the Earth, it was really beautiful. If I were God, I would be angry because I gave Earth to the people, but they are always complaining.

I know you were involved in developing the very first type of Internet called Arpanet. Can you tell me about that project?

Cerf: The problem was there were so many constraints. The overall design emerged as a major problem. So we intentionally made the design very simple. We were just trying to get little bits of data to go from one place in the net to somewhere else. The network doesn’t know what it’s carrying; it only knows it’s carrying bits of data back and forth. It took about 10 years to implement a number of different operating systems. By 1983, the academic community was using Arpanet and 10 years later, the general public got a chance to use it too.

Yi: When there is a flood of information online, it’s hard to tell what exactly is accurate.

Cerf: I try to tell students they should evaluate whether information online is accurate or not. You can do that by comparing different sources. It’s important to keep educating people that they should be a little suspicious of any information they receive on the Internet.

Yi: I’m curious to know about IP addresses. Back in KAIST where I studied, it was easy to get them from school. But now the entire world seems to be running short.

Cerf: When the Internet was first designed, I was running programs in the U.S. defense department. There was a big argument over how much address space we should have for the Internet. After about a year of debate, I said “Okay, fine, 32 bits of address space. That’s 4.3 billion terminations that’s got to be enough for experiments.” What I didn’t appreciate was the experiment was never going to end. Today engineers are pushing to get IP version 6 into network version 4, which is what we’re using now. Version 6 has 128 bits of address space. That’s 340 trillion trillion trillion addresses, which should be enough to last a long time. The good part is we already have IP address 6 running in browsers. Google runs both version 4 and 6. I’m encouraging everyone to use both protocols so when we run out of address space around 2010, it won’t matter because everyone will have IP 6.

Yi: Will using IP 6 cause problems? Do we have to change applications or buy new PCs?

Cerf: We can hide all that detail for you. By checking a small box, IP version 6 will automatically run. You don’t need to buy a new PC. Most popular operating systems such as Microsoft Vista, XP and Apple’s Mac OS already have IP version 6 built in.

Yi: What do you think is the good side of the Internet?

Cerf: Something Google is eager to do, but is finding hard, is helping people who don’t share a common language communicate. I’m hoping someday that people around the world will be able to communicate with each other using computer-generated translation. Google is very interested in improving natural language translation. We’re working with 24 languages now and we’re hoping to get to 42. With Google translator, Korea will be able to export its cultural items.

Yi: We’ve got a question from a Korean model named Hong Jin-kyung. She wants to know what you think about anonymity in cyberspace.

Cerf: Sometimes being able to speak anonymously is important. Suppose you want to raise the profile of something bad going on in government, perhaps something in the criminal world. Being able to speak anonymously is useful in such a situation. But at the same time, we should develop tools that identify ourselves.

Yi: Do you think Koreans could become part of outer space research?

Cerf: You clearly have highly qualified, well educated engineers and scientist like you. I expect to see thoughtful and inventive applications coming out of Korea. That’s one of the reasons to have an office for Google here. We want to have access to those smart and creative people.

Yi: What are you final comments for Google users in Korea.

Cerf: You represent very interesting test bed for us to try out new ideas.

Vinton Cerf

Due to his involvement in the development of Arpanet, or Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, a project which was organized by the U.S. Department of Defense, Cerf is often called the father of the Internet.

Cerf graduated from Stanford University in 1965, majoring in mathematics and earned a doctorate degree from UCLA in 1972.

He has served as a president and board member of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) since 2000.

Cerf joined Google last year as vice president, and is working on interproprietary protocols for connecting the Internet to outer space.

Yi So-yeon

As Korea’s first astronaut, Yi So-yeon stayed in the International Space Station for 10 days in April where she conducted a number of scientific experiments.

She is the world’s 475th astronaut, and the world’s 49th female astronaut.

She was chosen from 36,000 candidates who applied for the Korean space project.

This interview is available from JoongAng Ilbo and a video clip will be uploaded to Joins.com, YouTube and a Google blog. The special reporting team includes Lee Won-ho, Lee Na-ree, Kim Chang-woo, Kim Yun-mi, Kim Hyung-soo, Lee Byung-goo, Kim Jee-il, Woo Hyun-ah, Park Yong-seog, Park Kyung-min and Park Bang-joo (JoongAng Ilbo), and Sung So-young (JoongAng Daily).

By Special reporting team Staff Reporter / JoongAng Ilbo [so@joongang.co.kr]