“A rat done bit my sister Nell (with Wi-Fi on the moon)” is the new lyric.

There are rural parts of America that still depend on dial-up, but the moon now has Wi-Fi. Perhaps that’s because Earth is an inhabited planet where everyone has politics and a profit motive, and the moon knows no such barriers. From Timothy McGrath at Global Post:

“Life on the moon just got a whole lot more awesome. Sure, you’ve got to wear a spacesuit and there’s not much to do in the way of recreation and nightlife.

But that’s all okay now, because there’s Wi-Fi.

Researchers at NASA and MIT have figured out how to beam wireless connectivity from a ground base in New Mexico to the moon using telescopes and lasers.

It’s as cool as it sounds.

Here’s how it works. The transmission utilizes four separate telescopes connected to a laser transmitter that feeds coded pulses of infrared light through it. Those signals travel toward a satellite orbiting the moon. Researchers have managed to make a connection and transfer data at a speed approximating slower Wi-Fi speeds on Earth.”