Nokia And NASA Working On 4G LTE Communications On The Moon

Nokia and NASA working on 4G LTE communications on the Moon

Nokia Bell Labs and NASA plan to bring 4G LTE service to the south pole of the moon. Participating in this project also includes the American space exploration start-up company Intuitive Machines (direct machine, plans to develop the lunar module), Lunar Outpost (selected by NASA to dig the moon) and SpaceX.

In 2020, NASA and Nokia signed a contract to bring mobile communication services to the moon, with the goal of supporting mature technology while benefiting future space exploration. To this end, Nokia plans to participate in the IM-2 launch later this year, which will send 4G LTE base stations and services to the moon. Nokia says it will demonstrate that mobile cellular technology matured on Earth can be used in future lunar exploration.

Nokia said that LTE/4G technology was chosen because it is widely deployed on the ground, has excellent performance and economy, meets the needs of lunar exploration, and is easy to upgrade to 5G. At that time, Nokia will launch to the moon a spacecraft carrying LTE base stations, built-in evolved packet core EPC functions, LTE user equipment, RF antennas and operation and maintenance software. The entire device includes two parts: the rover Rover and the lunar module Lander. The base station and passive antenna are installed on IM's lunar module, while the LTE client equipment is on the rover. After the rover and the lunar module arrive on the moon, they are automatically deployed, and an LTE communication link is established to realize two-way 4G communication between the rover and the lunar module, which can reach a distance of several kilometers.

According to Nokia's introduction, the LTE equipment carried by their lunar exploration vehicle can realize the transmission of real-time video and telemetry signals. All of this data will be used in NASA's future missions to the moon, and even future missions to Mars.