By Elishya Perera
(CWBN)_ The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has awarded $14.1 million to Nokia of America Corporation, in order to introduce a 4G cellular communications network on the Moon, as a part of $370 million worth of contracts signed by the organisation, to build a lunar base and eventually sustain a human presence on the moon by 2028.
Accordingly, NASA has selected over a dozen American companies as partners to “build up an array of mission-ready capabilities to support a sustainable presence on the Moon and future human missions to Mars”, an official statement read. In addition to a 4G cellular network, the other innovations include robotics, remote power generation, cryogenic freezing, and much more.
Nokia plans is to build a 4G/LTE network, and eventually upgrade it to 5G, and it will be the first LTE/4G communications system in space. The system will support lunar surface communications at greater distances, increased speeds, and provide more reliability than current standards, while Nokia’s research arm, Bell Labs, claims that the network is intended to support wireless operation of lunar rovers and navigation, as well as streaming videos.
The network will be specially designed to withstand the particularities of the lunar surface, namely extreme temperature, radiation and vacuum conditions of space.
Meanwhile, eight countries signed an international pact for moon exploration, known as the Artemis Accords, last week. The programme is a US-led effort to establish a practical set of principles to guide space exploration cooperation among nations participating in the agency’s 21st century lunar exploration plans. The Accord is one of NASA’s many efforts to ensure cooperation between states in the exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies. It aims to land the first woman and the next man on the moon by 2024.
Edited By Chathushka Perera
