NASA, in partnership with Nokia, has just announced that they will be putting 4G Internet on the moon by 2022, with plans to roll out 5G progressively over time. That means that when installed, Nokia’s 4G LTE base station will be located around 238,900 miles above us!

From Paper Magasine:

Nokia is expected to upgrade to 5G from 4G over time, allowing astronauts to communicate through audio and video calls, among other things. The use of their internet and wireless communication will help with data transmission, including command and control functions, remote navigation of lunar robots, streaming high-definition video in space, exchanging biometric data, etc.

In a statement, Marcus Weldon, chief technology officer at Nokia, detailed the company’s plans for moon mobile phone network technology: “Leveraging our rich and successful history in space technologies, from pioneering satellite communication to discovering the cosmic microwave background radiation produced by the Big Bang, we are now building the first ever cellular communications network on the Moon,” he explains, “Reliable, resilient and high-capacity communications networks will be key to supporting sustainable human presence on the lunar surface.”

Ultimately, according to Nokia, their and NASA’s shared goal is to “deploy the first LTE/ 4G communications system in space” and “help pave the way towards sustainable human presence on the lunar surface.”

Picture source: c w on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

[Paper Magazine | Via Neatorama]