NASA (The National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has awarded Nokia of the US $14.1 million to deploy a 4G cellular network on the surface of moon.
On the announcement of contract for this project, NASA’s official said, “The system could support lunar surface communications at greater distances, increased speeds and provide more reliability than current standards,”.
According to United Press International, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in a live broadcast said that the space agency must quickly develop new technologies for living and working on the moon if it wants to realise its goal to have astronauts working at a lunar base by 2028.
Jim Bridenstine, NASA’s administrator said, “We need power systems that can last a long time on the surface of the moon, and we need habitation capability on the surface.”
Nokia`s research arm, Bell Labs tweeted, “Working with our partners at Int_Machines, this groundbreaking network will be the critical communications fabric for data transmission applications, including the control of lunar rovers, real-time navigation over lunar geography and streaming of high definition video.”
To the moon! 🌕
We are excited to have been named by @NASA as a key partner to advance “Tipping Point” technologies for the moon, to help pave the way towards sustainable human presence on the lunar surface.
So, what technology can you expect to see? (1/6) pic.twitter.com/wDNwloyHdP
— Bell Labs (@BellLabs) October 15, 2020
As per reports, Nokia had attempted on 2018 to launch an LTE network on thr moon, which was planned to do on collaboration with PTScientists which is a German space company, and Vodafone UK to launch an LTE network at the site of the Apollo 17 landing. This couldn’t happen as the mission reportedly never got off the ground.
