Scientists are intensively exploring the possibilities of colonizing other planets in the solar system. Just recently, the plans of a moon base are in the works. With that in mind, a company is working on a plan to place the first 4G network on the Moon in 2019 aboard one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets.
PTScientists, a German company is planning on the mission to the moon, with other companies like Vodafone, Nokia, and Audi partnering to make 4G network on the moon a reality. The company is formerly known as Part-Time Scientists, while the team was also competing in the Google Lunar X-Prize competition, which ended without a winner unfortunately, although extensions of its deadline were made. The company has partnered with SpaceX. It’s worth mentioning that Elon Musk’s company sent two test satellites into space last week, as part of its “space internet” Starlink network.
Audi is working to build the two rovers named Audi lunar quattro rovers, and they will connect to a base station, the Autonomous Landing and Navigation Module. The network will be equipped with the technology from Vodafone Nokia, on the other hand, and will support the space-grade network on the moon with small hardware parts made through the Nokia Bell Labs.
“This important mission is supporting, among other things, the development of new space-grade technologies for future data networking, processing and storage, and will help advance the communications infrastructure required for academics, industry and educational institutions in conducting lunar research,” Nokia chief technology officer and Bell Labs president Marcus Weldon said in a statement on Tuesday.
Vodafone Germany CEO, Dr. Hannes Ametsreiter, added, as per the statement: “This project involves a radically innovative approach to the development of mobile network infrastructure. It is also a great example of an independent, multi-skilled team achieving an objective of immense significance through their courage, pioneering spirit and inventiveness.”
Those rovers are going to “study NASA’s Apollo 17 lunar roving vehicle that was used by the last astronauts to walk on the Moon (Commander Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt) to explore the Taurus-Littrow valley in December 1972,” and they will transfer the scientific data and HD videos back to Earth using the base station. It will be the first live HD video streamed from the moon back to Earth, that the world has ever seen.
It’s still unknown how long the Audi rovers and the 4G network on the Moon will last, given the cruel environment and conditions on Earth’s natural satellite, if the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch sometime next year goes properly. It’s also important that the 4G payload deploys on the lunar surface successfully.
The high-speed, stable connection is of critical importance to any lunar base that humanity is to inhabit on the lunar surface in the future, as similarly, food and water, which could be extracted from the widespread water on the Moon that scientists recently discovered.
