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Nokia plans to launch 4G internet services on the moon in 2023

30. 03. 2023 Thursday / By: Robert Denes / Generic / Exact time: BST / Print this page

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The Finnish telecommunications giant plans to build Nokia 4G networks on the moon. Yes. The moon. The company hopes to help lunar exploration by providing Internet access on Earth's natural satellite.

According to the plans, the network will be launched with a SpaceX rocket in the coming months, Nokia chief engineer Luis Maestro Ruiz De Temino told reporters at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona earlier this month. According to the manufacturer, the network on the moon will be powered by a base station equipped with an antenna stored in the Nova-C moon lander designed by the American space company Intuitive Machines, as well as by the associated solar rover.

Once on the surface, an LTE connection is established between the lander and the rover. The infrastructure will land on Shackleton Crater, which lies along the southern limb of the Moon.

The network will be used in NASA's Artemis 1 mission, which aims to send the first human astronauts to the lunar surface since 1972. The goal is to show that ground-based networks can meet the communication needs of future space missions, Nokia said, adding that its network will allow astronauts to communicate with each other and with mission control, as well as remotely control the rover, and real transmit time-lapse video and telemetry data back to Earth.

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