To reach its 2028 goal of building a lunar base and ultimately sustaining a human presence on the moon, NASA paid 37 370 million to more than a dozen companies to set up technology on the lunar surface. Those innovations include remote power generation, cryogenic freezing, robotics, safe landing … and 4G. Because how would astronauts tweet more on their lunar golf shots and lunar rover selfies?
NASA says radio on 4G lunar can provide more reliable, long-distance communication than current standards. Like on Earth, the 4G network will eventually be upgraded to 5G.
Nokia (No.) Bell Labs was given .1 14.1 million for this project. Bell LabsThe spaceflight engineering company will partner with Intuitive Machines to create a 4G-LTE network, previously operated by AT&T.
John Oliver jokes about the CNN parent company AT&T (T.) On the one hand, 4G will probably work better on the moon than here – there will be no trees, buildings or TV signals to interfere with the 4G signal. The lunar cellular network will also be specially designed to cope with the lunar surface specifications: extreme temperature, radiation and space vacuum. It will remain operational during lunar landings and launches, although rockets vibrate the lunar surface significantly.
Bell Labs said the astronauts will use its wireless network for data transmission, controlling lunar rovers, real-time navigation over lunar geography (think Google Maps for the moon) and high-definition video. It could give us a better shot of astronauts sniffing the surface of the moon on Earth: Buzz Aldrin was a great cameraman, but he didn’t have an iPhone.
The 4G network on Earth is supported by huge power generators and huge cell towers with radios. But Bell Labs helped create small cell technologies that are more limited in range but use much less power than conventional cell towers and are significantly easier to put into a rocket ship. That small cell tech is currently deployed to 5G networks worldwide.
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