Nokia plans to deliver a 4G cellular bubble to the Moon late this year.
And it's developing spacesuits with 4G LTE
The Moon could get 5G by 2030
In space, soon everybody will be able to hear you call.
Nokia is extending its 4G capabilities to the Moon. The vendor is partnering with Axiom Space to incorporate cellular network capabilities into lunar spacesuits. These suits will be part of a NASA crewed mission to the Moon's south pole, expected to launch in September 2026 or later.
Nokia and Axiom Space are incorporating LTE cellular capabilities in the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU), which will support video, data and voice transmission over miles on the moon’s surface.
This builds on Nokia’s plans to create a small cellular bubble on the lunar surface at the end of this year, part of an earlier NASA project. That mission is being done in conjunction with Intuitive Machines and Lunar Outpost and will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
A lunar 4G network in a box
Nokia will launch a 4G dual-redundant “network in a box” to support cell phone-like terminals carried by a rover developed by Lunar Outpost and a small “hopper” that can jump into craters and crevices on the Moon's south pole. The lander mission will search for evidence of water.
Another 4G cellular bubble will then be used by the four crew of the Artemis III mission in 2026. Thierry Klein, president of Bell Labs solution research at Nokia told Fierce in May this year that the moon won’t get the latest and greatest cellular technology for some time.
“Maybe it’s a 2030 timeframe, “ Klein said at the time. “My view is that NASA is going to be one to one-and-half generations behind commercial cellular.”