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Oct. 19, 2020
The Finnish group Nokia will manufacture for NASA the first operational mobile telephone network on the Earth satellite. It should be deployed at the end of 2022.
Image above: The “ultra-compact and space-resistant” 4G network will be “the very first cellular network on the Moon”. (photo illustration).
Hello Moon? The Finnish group Nokia will manufacture for NASA what will be the first operational mobile telephone network on the Moon, as part of the permanent human base project of the US space agency, he announced Monday.
The “ultra-compact, energy-efficient and space-resistant” 4G network, which will be “the very first cellular network on the Moon”, must be deployed on the surface of the Moon by the end of 2022, via the lander on which works the American company Intuitive Machines, specifies Nokia in a press release. NASA has confirmed that it will be the first cellular network on the Moon, where humans last walked back to 1972.
Ensuring the connection of astronaut activities
The network, which must be self-configuring during its deployment on the Moon, must in particular make it possible to ensure the wireless connection of "any activity that the astronauts will have to carry out, allowing the exchange of communication by voice and video, telemetry and the exchange of biometric data, or the deployment and operation of robots, ”continues the Finnish group.
The contract, worth $ 14.1 million, was won by Nokia's US subsidiary in a series of cutting-edge contracts unveiled by NASA on Friday. "The system will allow communications to the Moon's surface over greater distances, at higher speed, and more reliably than current standards," the space agency said in its statement.
Two American astronauts, including a woman, are scheduled to walk on the Moon in 2024 during the Artemis 3 mission, and NASA wants to establish a permanent base there, a prelude to a possible mission to Mars.
Related links:
Nokia USA: https://www.nokia.com/about-us/worldwide/north-america/
Intuitive Machines: https://www.intuitivemachines.com/
NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/
Image, Text, Credits: ATS/NOKIA/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.
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