What about on Earth, could DTN protocols be useful here, too?
An engineer in Sweden had the idea of trying out DTN protocols to track reindeer in Lapland, where the Sami tribe has been herding for 8,000 years. Reindeer wander around and are in and out of radio contact. It’s an unpredictable environment, which is very different from an environment in which you can compute orbital mechanics and predict the likely contacts that might occur. This opportunistic capability, when communications are less predictable, is what’s being tested in Lapland.

Also, in oceanic research, you have instruments generating and accumulating data on the ocean’s surface or the sea floor, but you don’t necessarily have continuous connectivity to them. For Earth observations, sensors could sweep through a forest intermittently but not be continuously broadcast. In a fully connected internet environment, you get rid of the data as you produce it. But that won’t work in an environment with intermittent connectivity. You need a protocol that says: “Don’t panic! It’s OK, just hang onto it.” Also, battery-driven devices should not constantly transmit when they could be more efficient.