Vint Cerf gazes at interplanetary web

Internet visionary Vint Cerf has predicted that in the coming decades, scientists will have developed an interplanetary web, or a common set of communications protocols that will allow sensors on spacecraft, satellites and planets to transmit information to each other and back to Earth.

Speaking during a talk at Google's Analyst Day, Cerf said: "I think we're going to end up with an interplanetary backbone over the next 20, 30, 40 years... "

Google, of course, would be the search engine to organise all that data, he said. We'll have "data coming back from space, which we'll help to organise just like we organise [everything else]", he added.

Google hired Cerf in September 2005 to be its internet evangelist but before and since then, Cerf has been working on building communication standards for deep space for Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Meanwhile, Google has invested itself in space-related projects since hiring Cerf. The search engine has teamed with Nasa Ames Reseach Center on various development programmes, such as making Nasa lunar and Mars data available online. In September, Google also invested $30m to sponsor the Google Lunar X Prize, a contest that asks private teams to build a robotic rover capable of roaming the lunar surface and then sending video, images and data back to Earth.

During his talk, Cerf said the interplanetary backbone will accumulate as new private and publicly funded missions are launched in the solar system.

CNET News.com's Elinor Mills contributed to this report

Stefanie Olsen writes for CNET News.com