Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics company, Nokia, is set to boldly go where no mobile network has gone before.
Nokia has been selected by NASA to build the first cellular network on the moon, the Finnish company said on Monday, as the U.S. space agency plans for a future where humans return there and establish lunar settlements.
NASA aims to return humans to the moon by 2024 and dig in for a long-term presence there under its Artemis programme.
Nokia says it will have a wireless broadband system up and running on the moon in late 2022, ahead of any astronaut arrivals. It will partner with Texas-based Intuitive Machines to deliver its equipment there. After delivery the network will set itself up automatically.
The network will provide critical communication capabilities for many data transmission applications, including vital command and control functions, remote control of lunar rovers, real-time navigation and streaming of high definition video.
These communication applications are all vital to long-term human presence on the lunar surface. Nokia’s LTE network – the precursor to 5G – is ideally suited for providing wireless connectivity for any activity that astronauts need to carry out, enabling voice and video communication capabilities, telemetry and biometric data exchange, and deployment and control of robotic and sensor payloads.
