Episode Details

Why can't an astronaut on the Moon stream Netflix from Earth? The answer reveals everything about how space communication actually works. In this episode, we break down the three constraints that define interplanetary networking: latency (fixed by the speed of light), bandwidth (allocated by treaty and limited by frequency), and throughput (governed by the Shannon-Hartley theorem). From Apollo's 20-watt Lunar Module transmitter beaming grainy TV across 384,400 kilometers, to the ISS's 300 Mbps Ku-band downlink, to Voyager 1's 160 bps whisper from 24 billion kilometers away — we trace how the physics of distance shapes every signal we send into space. And we answer the test case: what would it actually take to stream video from the Moon?