The last time humans set foot on the Moon was on December 1972, during the Apollo 17 mission. Astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent just over three days on the lunar surface conducting scientific experiments, gathering samples, and performing maintenance tasks. Since then, no humans have returned to the Moon, although there are plans for future manned missions as part of NASA’s Artemis program.
It’s inevitable that human will set foot on the moon again and to prepare for this eventuality, Nokia is putting a mobile network up there.
CNBC reports that in an effort to spur lunar discoveries and pave the way for human presence on the moon, the Finnish telecommunications group plans to launch the 4G mobile network on a SpaceX rocket in the coming months.
The network will consist of an antenna-equipped base station stored in a Nova-C lunar lander, designed by a U.S space company Intuitive Machines, and a solar-powered rover, which will establish an LTE connection between the lander and the rover.
The network is designed to withstand the extreme conditions of space and will be used within NASA’s Artemis 1 mission, which aims to send the first human astronauts to walk on the moon’s surface again.
The mobile network infrastructure will land on the Shackleton crater, located along the southern limb of the moon, and will allow astronauts to communicate with each other and with mission control, control the rover remotely, and stream real-time video and telemetry data back to Earth.
Nokia hopes that this network will demonstrate that terrestrial networks can meet the communications needs for future space missions.
