Porting the 4G network on the Moon for space communications: what it’s for and why the Nokia 4G on Moon project in collaboration with NASA is important
Porting communications through a 4G network also on the Moon. This is the challenge that NASA has entrusted to Nokia’s Bell Labs by signing a $14.1 million contract so that 4G communication technology also on the satellite of planet Earth with the project called Nokia 4G on Moon.
This is not the first time that Nokia is working on a project to bring 4G LTE network on the Moon. From prototypes of a project born in 2018, and never realized, Bell Labs implemented the new hardware and adapted it to the demands of the space agency NASA. The 4G technology will be implemented on a rover sent to the Moon, so it can create a cellular network that will serve to improve space communication. The rovers and landers will then be able to send large amounts of data and high-resolution video faster from the satellite to the ground.
Nokia and 4G from Earth to the Moon
It all stems from a project Nokia carried out in 2018 in collaboration with Vodafone and Audi to develop a private lunar LTE network. The project never came to fruition, but the Finnish company’s labs found a way to reuse the technology developed, adapting it to the needs of the US space agency. As explained by Thierry Klein, who runs the Enterprise and Industrial Automation Research Lab at Bell Labs, prototype equipment was repurposed and tested in special test chambers that simulated the lunar environment. Thanks to these tests, Nokia was able to develop a new prototype hardware to bring 4G to the Moon.
Nokia 4G on Moon: how the prototype works
No cell phone towers over 30 meters high: the new hardware developed by Nokia’s Bell Labs will be deployed on a rover made by Intuitive Machines, between 3 and 5 meters high and designed to ensure the 4G network equipment can withstand radiation, temperature fluctuations and vibrations. The modules deployed on the lunar rover will therefore be more similar to small cell devices, those that are currently used to reinforce cellular networks at street level.
Although the absence of an atmosphere will help signal propagation, the range could be quite limited. Nokia researchers are therefore working on two different cases: a short-range communication system (300 to 400 meters) and a more powerful LTE package to send the signal up to 5 kilometers away.
4G on the Moon: why it’s important for NASA
While on Earth the mobile industry is pushing for the deployment of the 5G standard, on the Moon the presence of a 4G cellular network will offer multiple benefits and ensure NASA can use the LTE standard for Moon-Earth communications, so as to simplify space transmissions. By leveraging 4G technology, lunar rovers and landers on upcoming space missions to the Moon will be able to send high-resolution video and scientific data at higher speeds, as well as paving the way for new capabilities in space communications.