((full)) - Interstellar Network Proxy

You couldn't browse a database forty years away. You couldn't negotiate a trade agreement with a lag longer than a human lifespan. The universe was too big for real-time democracy.

"Elara," the Proxy said, smiling warmly. "Good to see your face. The local lights out here are dim. It’s good to see some sunshine, even if it is synthetic." interstellar network proxy

The defining characteristic of an interstellar proxy is its "Store-and-Forward" capability. You couldn't browse a database forty years away

While many proxies are clunky or slow, Interstellar is renowned for its "blazing-fast" speeds "Elara," the Proxy said, smiling warmly

The Earth-side ISNP subscribes to a firehose of Earth telemetry (weather, stock prices, news headlines). It time-stamps each datum with its Terrestrial Coordinated Time (TCT). When a Martian request arrives, the proxy calculates the age of the requested data. If the requested data is older than the current light-time delay, the proxy returns its cached copy immediately. If the user wants live data, the proxy holds the connection open, waits for the next Earth update, and bundles it.