Nokia aims for the Moon with 4G internet

In a bid to enhance lunar discoveries - and possibly pave the way for human habitation on the satellite planet - Nokia will launch a 4G mobile network on the moon later this year.

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Luis Maestro Ruiz De Temino, Nokia's lead engineer, told reporters earlier this month at the Mobile World Congress trade event in Barcelona that the Finnish telecommunications company expects to launch the network on a SpaceX rocket over the coming months.

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An antenna-equipped base station housed inside the Nova-C lunar lander created by the American space company Intuitive Machines, as well as a solar-powered rover, will power the network.

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The lander and the rover will link via an LTE network.

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The Shackleton crater, which is located on the moon's southern limb, will get the infrastructure.

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The technology, according to Nokia, is built to resist the harsh conditions of space.

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The network will be utilized by NASA's Artemis 1 mission, which seeks to deliver the first astronauts to walk on the moon since 1972.

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The objective, according to Nokia, is to demonstrate that terrestrial networks are capable of handling the communications requirements for future space missions. Nokia's network will enable astronauts to communicate with one another and mission control, as well as to remotely operate the rover and stream real-time video and telemetry data back to Earth.

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Maestro Ruiz De Temino has stated that a SpaceX rocket will be used to launch the lander. He clarified that the lander has a propulsion mechanism in place to complete the voyage; the rocket will not carry it all the way to the moon's surface.

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2023 was seen as n "optimistic target" by Anshel Sag, chief analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, for the introduction of Nokia's products.

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Assuming their chosen launch partner doesn't have any setbacks or delays, there is a strong chance they might launch in 2023, according to Sag, who spoke with Trade Algo through email.

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The Nokia lunar network will "offer key communication capabilities for many diverse data transmission applications, including vital command and control tasks, remote control of lunar rovers, real-time navigation, and streaming of high-quality video," according to prior statements.

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Lunar ice

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Finding ice on the moon is one of the goals Nokia has set for its lunar network. The moon's surface is now mostly dry, although recent unmanned flights have found ice leftovers trapped in protected craters near the poles.

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Such water may be purified and utilized for drinking, separated to give astronauts breathing oxygen or split into hydrogen and oxygen for use as rocket fuel.

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As this actually seems to be a major test of the capabilities before starting to use it commercially for greater exploration and perhaps future mining activities, Sag told Trade Algo, "I could see this being used by future missions to continue to investigate the moon."

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"Mining needs a lot of infrastructure, as well as accurate information on the whereabouts of certain resources."

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If we ever hope to live on the moon, we'll need more than simply internet access. For example, the engineering behemoth Rolls-Royce is developing a nuclear reactor to supply power to future lunar explorers and residents.