[arin-ppml] Addressing for other planets

[Chris Woodfield]

I’m finding the concept of a new RIR - I’ll dub it “SpaceNIC” - that manages interplanetary number resources is an interesting one conceptually, and I believe it’s an intuitive argument that interplanetary space should be considered its own Capital-R region and should not simply be extensions of the earthbound operators of network infrastructure using those resources, particularly for the purpose of aggregation efficiency - the world's FIBs have gotten enough abuse already. The concept of an organization that’s entirely extraterrestrial isn’t something we should ignore either, regardless of whether we could expect that in our lifetimes or not. 

Of course, this goes against the colloquial understanding of an RIR’s founding function as that of managing IPv4 resources; SpaceNIC would most likely be managing solely IPv6 resources and 32-bit ASNs. I am in support of this… it’s like the only way a new RIR *could* be established practically, short of reclassifying Class E to global unicast (please, don’t).

The next bit of the thought experiment is: do the NRO’s governing documents (ICP-2) allow for such an RIR? The answer, from my reading, appears to be no. While there’s no specific requirement that a RIR manage IPv4 resources - that’s a good thing - there is this:

"It must be demonstrated that when established the new RIR's membership will include a significant percentage of the existing LIRs within the new RIR's region of coverage, specifically including those LIRs already receiving IP address registration services and/or other related services from an existing RIR.”

This suggests that in order to establish SpaceNIC, there must be an existing community of established LIRs in space in support, which there’s a good chance may not be the case. Language to the same effect can be found in the current proposed language for the revised ICP-2 document, albeit dropping the LIR terminology.

So, regardless of the merits, he policy wonk in me is recognizing that there may be required updated language in ICP-2 to account for the potential establishment of an RIR in “frontier” space where there are no established resource holders.

As always, I’m open to suggested alternative readings :)

-Chris

P.S. See also: a fully-populated Antarctica after the snow caps melt.

> On Feb 20, 2026, at 07:43, Fernando Frediani <fhfrediani at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I am following this and not beleiving this is serious. Forgive me if not but it looks like April's fools day
> 
> On Fri, 20 Feb 2026, 10:55 Daryll Swer via ARIN-PPML, <arin-ppml at arin.net> wrote:
> If we create GUA aggregates per planet (like we did on Earth with 2000::/3), should we also create /10s per planet, excluding Earth? I'm curious to hear what people think we should do for prefix length allocation to large bodies (planets) and possibly moons as well.
> 
> I don't think we should use 2000::/3 for anything outside Earth's immediate orbit, maybe the Moon at most. I think a different /3 from IANA should be used for space networking. This would allow clean aggregation per large body (planet or equivalent) and clean segmentations across RIRs (if we decide RIRs have allocation authority for space networking).
> 
> --
> Best Regards
> Daryll Swer
> Website: daryllswer.com
> 
> 
> On Fri, 20 Feb 2026 at 02:32, Tony Li <tony.li at tony.li> wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> As part of the IETF TIPTOP working group, we are working towards enabling the Internet in outer space.  We would like to direct your attention to a couple of recent Internet drafts that may be of interest:
> 
> An Architecture for IP in Deep Space
> datatracker.ietf.org<ietf-logo-nor-180.png>IP Address Space for Outer Space
> datatracker.ietf.org<ietf-logo-nor-180.png>
> 
> The latter has direct implications for the ARIN community,
> 
> I would welcome any and all comments.
> 
> Regards,
> Tony
> _______________________________________________
> ARIN-PPML
> You are receiving this message because you are subscribed to
> the ARIN Public Policy Mailing List (ARIN-PPML at arin.net).
> Unsubscribe or manage your mailing list subscription at:
> https://lists.arin.net/mailman/listinfo/arin-ppml
> Please contact info at arin.net if you experience any issues.
> _______________________________________________
> ARIN-PPML
> You are receiving this message because you are subscribed to
> the ARIN Public Policy Mailing List (ARIN-PPML at arin.net).
> Unsubscribe or manage your mailing list subscription at:
> https://lists.arin.net/mailman/listinfo/arin-ppml
> Please contact info at arin.net if you experience any issues.
> <ietf-logo-nor-180.png>_______________________________________________
> ARIN-PPML
> You are receiving this message because you are subscribed to
> the ARIN Public Policy Mailing List (ARIN-PPML at arin.net).
> Unsubscribe or manage your mailing list subscription at:
> https://lists.arin.net/mailman/listinfo/arin-ppml
> Please contact info at arin.net if you experience any issues.