company news about Nokia and NASA are working on 4G LTE communications on the moon

Nokia Bell LABS and NASA have teamed up to bring 4G LTE services to the moon's South Pole. Other participants in the programme include Intuitive Machines, an American space exploration start-up with plans for a Lunar module, Lunar Outpost, chosen by NASA for earth-digging on the moon, and SpaceX.

In 2020, NASA and Nokia signed a contract to bring mobile communications services to the moon. The goal is to support mature technologies while benefiting future space exploration. To that end, Nokia plans to participate in the launch of IM-2 later this year to deliver 4G LTE base stations and services to the moon. Nokia says this will prove that mobile cellular technology established on Earth can be used for future lunar exploration.

Nokia said it chose LTE/4G technology because it is widely deployed on the ground, has excellent performance and economy, meets the needs of lunar exploration, and is easy to upgrade to 5G. At that time, Nokia will send a spacecraft to the moon carrying an LTE base station, built-in evolution packet core EPC capabilities, LTE user equipment, RF antennas, and operational software. The whole equipment includes two parts: Rover and lunar module Lander. Base station and passive antenna are installed on IM's lunar module, while LTE user device is installed on the probe vehicle. After reaching the moon, the rover and the lunar module will be automatically deployed, and LTE communication links will be established to realize two-way 4G communication between the rover and the lunar module, which can reach several kilometers.

According to Nokia, the LTE equipment on its lunar rover will enable real-time video and telemetry transmissions. All of this data will be used for NASA's future moon missions, and even future missions to Mars.