Struggling to get a mobile signal? Well, not for long, since you could always move to the Moon. For even as many Earthlings still suffer from signal problems, astronauts visiting the lunar surface will soon be able to get full bars. That is the plan, anyway, after US space agency NASA struck a deal with Nokia.
The Finnish telecoms giant has been chosen to build the Moon’s first cellular network, as the agency prepares for a future where humans return – and this time stay put. The Finnish telecommunications firm said on Monday that the partnership will create a path toward sustainable human presence on the lunar surface, and will result in the first LTE/4G communications system in space.
Nasa wants humans to get back on the moon by 2024 and to dig in for a long-term stay under its Artemis programme, which will see settlements established. Nokia said the first wireless broadband communications system in space would be built on the lunar surface in late 2022, before humans make it back there.
It will partner with a Texas-based space craft design firm, Intuitive Machines, to deliver the equipment to the moon on a lunar lander. The network will allow astronauts to make voice and video calls to one another, send data and control lunar rovers and robots remotely.
The solution has been specially designed to withstand the harsh conditions of the launch and lunar landing, and to operate in the extreme conditions of space, it said. The company said the technology its using — the precursor to 5G — is ideally suited for providing the kind of wireless connection that astronauts need.
