At least if the joint vision of NASA and Nokia is to be realized. The result of the cooperation would be a real mobile network in the sky: first on the Moon, but Mars is also emerging among the long-term plans. Wherever humanity settles, cat gifs go with it…
As the first step in what promises to be a long process, a 4G base station will be delivered to the moon on one of the next SpaceX launch vehicles. The lander will install the system at the south pole of the celestial body, which will then be remotely monitored from Earth.
“The very first task to be solved in order to deploy the network is to have equipment that can be used in space, that meets the appropriate size, weight and performance requirements, and that can be installed without a technician working on site,” he said. Walt Engelund, deputy executive director of the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate responsible for the program. In addition to the equipment
it will have to survive in a harsh lunar environment with extreme temperatures and radiation.
The 4G network unit is built by Nokia Bell Labs using a number of commercially available components. The unit will be placed on the lander manufactured by the American company Intuitive Machines, and after installation, the lander will be connected via radio devices to two self-propelled vehicles that will search for ice on the surface of our celestial companion. The Lunar Outpost will work near Shackleton Crater, while the Micro-Nova lander will “pop” into a crater to search for previously unseen, up-close evidence of suspected lunar ice. The images taken from the ice will be transmitted to the lander almost in real time via the mobile network on the lunar surface, and from there they will quickly arrive on Earth.
According to NASA, the connection provided by the mobile network is invaluable: currently, astronauts can only talk to each other via radio, the space agency wants a lunar communication system that can also transmit high-resolution videos and scientific data. What’s more, the astronauts will be able to conduct video conversations with the controllers on earth, and even with their families, as if they had just taken out the smartphone on the street, added Walt Engelund.
This can create the basis for a mobile network service similar to terrestrial but extraterrestrial. Personal devices could simply connect to networks, allowing space colonists to use smartphones,
and thus have access to all the applications and services available to people living on Earth.
NASA selected Bell Labs as the project’s first partner, which received a $14.1 million grant in 2020. And in January 2024, Nokia was selected by the US defense research agency DARPA to begin work on a communications services infrastructure that would eventually serve as the “framework” for the lunar economy.
“The future lunar economy will depend crucially on communication technologies, such as the collection and analysis of data, the sharing of information, and the maintenance and control of operations,” he pointed out. Thierry Klein, president of Bell Labs Solutions Research. “This includes maintaining a semi-permanent or permanent human presence on the Moon, as well as automated, robotic operations for transportation, resource mining, mineral processing and scientific data collection.”
