NASA is preparing to return to the Moon by 2024, and wants its astronauts to have a reliable way of communicating with each other. To do this, the United States space company turned to Nokia.
The Finnish company will receive $ 14,1 million in funding for the development of a 4G network on the Moon.
Nokia announced today project details, and reported that the development of the first LTE/4G communications system in space will be extremely vital to NASA's Artemis program, which seeks to establish a small community on the Moon by 2030.
The announcement states:
"The network will provide critical communication capabilities for many different applications transmission data, such as vital command and control functions, remote control of lunar rovers, real-time navigation and streaming high definition video.”
Nokia said its solution will be "ultra-compact, low-power, space-hardy, end-to-end LTE" and will be deployed on the Moon by the end of 2022. The company plans to integrate the system of its wireless communications on the lunar surface in collaboration with Intuitive Machines, a privately held Texas-based spacecraft design firm.
Once the project is delivered, the network will automatically adjust and create the first LTE communication system on the Moon, Nokia says.
