Nokia will establish a 4G mobile network on the moon later this year in an effort to improve lunar findings and perhaps pave the door for human habitation on the satellite planet.
Nokia’s principal engineer, Luis Maestro Ruiz De Temino, told reporters earlier this month at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona that the Finnish telecoms firm plans to deploy the network aboard a SpaceX rocket in the coming months.
The network will be powered by an antenna-equipped base station located within the Nova-C lunar lander manufactured by the US space company Intuitive Machines, as well as a solar-powered rover.
The lander and rover will communicate over an LTE network.
The equipment will be installed in the Shackleton crater on the moon’s southern limb.
According to Nokia, the technology is designed to withstand the harsh conditions of space.
NASA’s Artemis 1 mission, which aims to deliver the first people to walk on the moon since 1972, will use the network.
According to Nokia, the goal is to demonstrate that terrestrial networks can handle the communications needs of future space missions. The network provided by Nokia will allow astronauts to speak with one another and mission control, as well as remotely operate the rover and transmit real-time video and telemetry data back to Earth.
The lander will be launched by a SpaceX rocket, according to Maestro Ruiz De Temino. He explained that the lander has a propulsion mechanism that will bring it all the way to the moon’s surface; the rocket will not carry it all the way there.
Anshel Sag, chief analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, sees 2023 as a “optimistic target” for the debut of Nokia’s devices.
According to Sag, who communicated with Trade Algo through email, there is a good probability they will launch in 2023 if their selected launch partner does not have any setbacks or delays.