- The plan was to make the first cellular phone call on the Moon
- It went awry last week when Athena landed on its side, rendering it impossible to power a phone call
- Nokia isn’t giving up, saying it looks forward to future space missions
Nokia and Intuitive Machines succeeded in delivering a 4G LTE network to the Moon last week, but Nokia was unable to make the wireless phone call it had intended to do.
That’s because Intuitive Machines’ Athena lander ended up on its side, rendering it unable to recharge and power a phone call. It was a bittersweet ending to the mission – Nokia had high hopes for completing the first cellular phone call on the Moon. But it landed the LTE network successfully, for which it can take solace.
"Space is hard, but it has always been in Nokia Bell Labs DNA to tackle the hard challenges,” Nokia Bell Labs Solutions Research President Thierry Klein told Fierce via email. “We are very proud to have established the first cellular network on the Moon, even though we couldn't complete the first cellular call during this mission.”
Of course, it wasn’t all for nothing. There was a 25-minute window before Athena's power conked out where Nokia’s Lunar Surface Communications System (LSCS) was able to complete some tasks.
The LSCS’s “network in a box” (NIB) and its subcomponents – base station, radio and network core – functioned properly, running without any service interruption for the entire 25-minute power window, according to Nokia.
“The brief period of power we had yielded valuable data and results, proving that commercial components connecting billions on Earth can be adapted to function on the Moon. We look forward to future missions with NASA and other space industry partners to further demonstrate the viability of cellular technology for space exploration," Klein added.
The pressure was on Nokia to perform as it’s been talking about its lunar ambitions ever since NASA awarded a $14.1 million award five years ago. Nokia Bell Labs was named a key NASA partner to deploy the first 4G LTE network in space.
Rough skies for Intuitive Machines
While Nokia Bell Labs’ lunar team is getting back on its feet, the mission proved especially rough for Houston-based Intuitive Machines. It was the second time its lander died after tipping over on its side. Its shares tumbled, losing more than half their value.
But the company was able to complete some instrument checkouts and collect 250 megabytes of data for NASA.
“Empowering American companies to deliver science and tech to the Moon on behalf of NASA both produces scientific results and continues development of a lunar economy,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for Exploration in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, in a statement. “While we’re disappointed in the outcome of the IM-2 mission, we remain committed to supporting our commercial vendors as they navigate the very difficult task of landing and operating on the Moon.”
Watch this space (no pun intended, really). Fierce will be keeping an eye out for what comes next for Nokia’s space-based ambitions.
Fierce Network Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Coyne contributed to this report.