4G to make waves on the moon this year

Nokia is to launch a 4G mobile network on the moon this year, with the aim to enhance lunar discoveries, and perhaps allow for a future of human presence on the moon.

The telecommunications firm announced that the 4G will arrive on a SpaceX rocket and that it is expected to be deployed during Intuitive Machine’s upcoming IM-2 mission – scheduled to launch in November this year.

Aerospace company, Intuitive Machine’s, Nova-C lunar lander will take the system and others to the moon, placing Nokia’s 4G communication system on the “Shackleton crater”, in the southern region of the moon, CNBC reports.

Nokia worked alongside Intuitive Machine and technology firm Lunar Outpost in order to create the out of this world 4G technology, which is designed the withstand the harsh conditions in space.

Plans for the next astronaut to walk on the moon will be here soon, as NASA plans to send two in 2025 – marking the first time someone will walk on to moon ever since 1972.

Nokia announced its 4G lunar project in 2020 after being selected by NASA, and was granted $14.1 million to fund the project, according to CNN.

The Finnish telecommunications firm said that it will initially test the lander’s short and long-range communication capabilities at proximities ranging from a few hundred metres to between two and three kilometres away.

According to Nokia, the network will be important for “any sustained human presence on the Moon and Mars in the future”.

“It became evident to us that, for any sustained human presence on the Moon and Mars in the future, connectivity, and communications are critical,” Thierry Klein, president of Bell Labs Solutions Research at Nokia Bell Labs, said in the post.

He added that it is essential for astronauts to access technology as they would on Earth to support their applications and activities in space.

The idea is that astronauts will use the 4G internet to enhance “voice and video communications capabilities, telemetry and biometric data exchange, sensing applications, or controlling robots”.