some scientists are working to develop a modified version of the Internet, which uses a new sort of protocol called disruption-tolerant networking (DTN).
Unlike the protocol used on Earth, DTN doesn't assume a continuous end-to-end connection will exist, and it hangs onto data packets that it can't immediately send, until the connection is re-established.
To explain how that works, NASA uses a basketball analogy, in which a player just holds onto the ball patiently until another player is open under the basket, rather than panicking and tossing up a wild shot or throwing the ball away.
In 2008, NASA ran its first test of DTN, using it to transmit dozens of images from a spacecraft located about 20 million miles from Earth .