Space gets ‘fast broadband’

The European Space Agency (ESA) has embarked on an ambitious upgrade of its deep space tracking network. By 2018, communications will be possible with some spacecraft at urban fibre optic broadband speeds, a huge improvement on what is now possible.

Currently, ESA's Mars Express spacecraft communicates at just 228kbps from its orbit around the Red Planet. That's about 200-450 times slower than many homes can access the internet using fibre optic cables, which run at between 50-100Mbps.