The Peer to Peer Satellite Revolution: Profitably Moving Space-based Content from Computer Servers to Paying Customers

Space Commerce in the 21 century, beyond telecommunications, will be dominated by companies and entrepreneurs that can profitably move space-based content from the peer computer server where this content originates to the peer computing device owned by the end consumer. As private companies and national governments place satellites into space, these satellites will generate digital content that is valuable to consumers, governments, taxpayers, and businesses on the ground. Whether this satellite is a probe headed to Mars, a Galileo satellite producing navigation signals, or a remote sensing satellite taking pictures of the Earth, this satellite produces digital content valued by an end-user. NASA’s proposed investments in optical communications from, and remotesensing of Jupiter and Mars, the European commercial and government investment in Galileo, and commercial investment in satellite remote sensing will only be successful if there is a method to move this space-based content from the peer ________________________________ Copyright Copyright © 2003 by the International Astronautical Federation or the International Academy of Astronautics. All rights reserved. where it resides to the peer where the end-user can pay for it. Anything less may be doomed to failure, because the last 20 years and the next 20 years of successful space commerce have and will depend on investors, private and public, being able to see and use what they pay for.