This week’s super blue moon captivated earthlings with its magnificence. Meanwhile, groundbreaking technologies are bringing the ambition of lunar exploration closer to reality than ever before.
Today Nokia and Axiom Space announced a partnership to enable high-speed cellular network capabilities in lunar spacesuits that will be used for the Artemis III mission.
Over 30 days, Artemis III astronauts will reach lunar orbit, at which point two of the astronauts will descend to the moon’s south pole. There they will conduct a week of scientific research, and then rejoin their crew for the return to earth. NASA’s Artemis project is expected to build a sustainable presence on the moon by the end of the decade.
The work of Nokia and Axiom Space will allow the 4G/LTE cellular-network capabilities to be incorporated in the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) — i.e., lunar spacesuit — according to the companies’ joint press release.
The lunar spacesuit technology will support HD video, telemetry data and voice transmission over multiple kilometers. It will enable Artemis III crew members to take real-time video and communicate with mission controllers on earth during their explorations, the press release described.
Nokia plans to deploy the first cellular network on the moon on Intuitive Machines’ 2024 IM-2 mission, demonstrating its role in future lunar and Mars missions. The Lunar Surface Communications System (LSCS), developed by Nokia Bell Labs, will be used on IM-2 and adapted for the AxEMU lunar spacesuit.
The LSCS is fully autonomous and has two parts: a network-in-a-box that combines the radio, base station, and core network into one unit, and device modules integrated into AxEMU lunar spacesuits. Both are engineered to withstand the lunar environmental conditions and spaceflight stresses, and are optimized for size, weight, and power consumption.
“Just as astronauts will need life support, shelter and food, they will need advanced networks to communicate with each other and go about their crucial work,” said Thierry E. Klein, president of Bell Labs Solutions Research at Nokia. “We are taking advantage of the same standards-based technologies that connect billions of devices on earth every day, while bringing new innovation and technologies to bear on the specific challenges encountered in space.”
NASA announced the selection of Nokia to develop the first cellular network on the moon, using LTE technology, in 2020. High-speed communication will be critical to the project’s success, Nokia said at that time.
In addition to lunar spacesuits, LTE communications is expected to be used for data transmission applications including command-and-control functions, remote control of lunar rovers, real-time navigation, and streaming of HD video. These applications are all vital to long-term human presence on the lunar surface, Nokia said.
