The IT giant Nokia will build the first ever 4G network on the Moon, being chosen to do so by NASA. This will happen through the space agency’s Artemis program. The aim of this program is to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon in the next ten years.
NASA plans to take the first woman and the next man to the Moon somewhere in the next three to four years. And for this, whoever will live – even briefly – on the Moon will have to use appropriate communication means. 4G technology will replace the current radio standards in place on the Moon.
The role of the Finnish company is to provide with the technology to be integrated into the lunar landers NASA will send on our satellite, deemed to be “the first high performance wireless network solution on the Moon”.
Nokia announced that the connectivity will be provided for all the activities that astronauts need to carry out. This includes not only remote control and exchanging telemetry and biometric data, but also voice communication and to stream high-definition videos.
The company also said that the innovations of the Nokia Bell Labs will be used to build and deploy the first ultra-compact, low-power, end-to-end LTE solution on the lunar surface.
“We are now building the first ever cellular communications network on the Moon. Reliable, resilient and high-capacity communications networks will be key to supporting sustainable human presence on the lunar surface”, said Marcus Weldon, Chief Technology Officer at Nokia and Nokia Bell Labs President.
According to Nokia, the lunar network 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”.
The whole deployed equipment will include usual 4G facilities, as radio antennas, user equipment and a base station. All the 4G network should be up and running by the end of 2022, being installed remotely.
And even if the 4G is a big thing when we are talking about mobile connections on the Moon, this technology is in full process of changing on Earth.
The 4G is been swapped with 5G, a new and faster technology that will improve and facilitate autonomous car driving, telemedicine and even more niched sectors like video streaming or live dealer casino. For example, the players will be able to enjoy new experiences and an incredible speed when betting and playing on platforms like the live dealer casino NJ. The 5G will also help developing more secure payment methods, and will improve the casino security overall.
Nokia announced that the choice for 4G was made because of the proven reliability of the network. However, it is planning the transition to 5G sometime in the future.
Regarding to the lunar mission, other big names which will be involved are SpaceX (owned by Elon Musk) and Blue Origin (owned by Jeff Bezos). These companies will develop the lunar landers that have the role of actually landing the astronauts on the surface of the Moon, from its orbit.
The greater aim of NASA is to establish an outpost which will be orbiting the Moon by 2025. Eventually, the lunar landers will be able to deliver cargo on the Moon before 2030. By that moment, astronauts could live for months at a time on the lunar surface, for testing purposes.
The program Artemis is, thus, a big step for NASA’s returning to the Moon – and to stay this time. The name Artemis is of the mythological sister of Apollo, which we already know was the name of several Moon missions who put astronauts there, including the first one.