The American space agency has joined forces with the equipment manufacturer to install the first operational mobile telephone network on the Earth’s satellite. The 4G network is expected to be deployed this year.
Call or watch Netflix from the Moon? This will soon be possible thanks to Nokia. The Finnish group will manufacture the first operational mobile telephone network on the Moon for NASA, as part of the permanent human base project of NASA, the American space agency.
Although the project was initially planned for 2022, it was slightly delayed. This year, it should finally be deployed on the surface of the Moon. Indeed, according to the American media CNN, a SpaceX rocket should be launched in 2024 to transport the 4G network which will then be installed at the South Pole of our satellite.
Resisting space conditions
“The first challenge in getting a network up and running is having spatially appropriate cellular equipment that meets size, weight and power requirements, and can be deployed without help from a technician,” Walt Engelund, deputy associate administrator for programs in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, told CNN. The equipment must also withstand high temperatures and extreme radiation.
The network, which must self-configure during its deployment on the Moon, must in particular ensure the wireless connection of “any activity that the astronauts will have to carry out, allowing the exchange of communication by voice and video, telemetry and the exchange of biometric data, or the deployment and maneuvering of robots”, according to Nokia. The network should in particular be connected to two traveling vehicles in search of lunar ice.
Ultimately, the system will ensure communications on the surface of the Moon over greater distances, at greater speed, and more reliably than current standards.
Improving the daily lives of astronauts
But the 4G network will also allow astronauts to improve their daily lives on the Moon. In particular, they will be able to talk on the phone with their families and access all the applications available on a smartphone from Earth.
So many essential parameters for the Artemis program, which plans to send astronauts to the Moon by 2026.
“Being able to communicate on the Moon is just as essential as other elements of the mission like energy, drinking water and oxygen,” Walt Engelund said.
The contract, worth $14.1 million, was won by Nokia’s US subsidiary in 2020 as part of a series of cutting-edge NASA contracts.
