NASA and Nokia to install mobile telephony on the Moon

Olympus Project, NASA -

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 this would be the first cellular network on the Moon, where the last step of man dates back to 1972. The network, which must be self-configuring when it is deployed on the Moon, must in particular make it possible to ensure the wireless connection of "any activity that 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 maneuver of robots", continues the Finnish group.

A mission to ... Mars?

The contract, worth $ 14.1 million, was won by the US subsidiary of Nokia as part of a series of cutting-edge contracts unveiled by NASA on Friday.

"The system will allow communications to the surface of the Moon over greater distances, at greater speed, and more reliably than current standards," said the space agency 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.

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