The moon will get its first mobile phone network next year, enabling high definition streaming from the lunar surface back to earth. Together with Berlin-based PTScientists, Vodafone Germany, Nokia and Audi are working on the project, Mission to the Moon, 50 years after the first NASA astronauts walked on the moon.
Vodafone will use its network technology to enable 4G coverage that will connect two Audi Quattro lunar rovers to a base station while Nokia is making space-grade networking gear that will weigh less than 1 kg. The launch is scheduled for 2019 from Cape Canaveral (Florida) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
“This project involves a radically innovative approach to the development of mobile network infrastructure,” Vodafone Germany Chief Executive Hannes Ametsreiter said.
One executive involved said the decision to build a 4G network rather a state-of-the-art 5G network was taken because the next generation networks remain in the testing and trial stage and are not stable enough to ensure they would work from the lunar surface.
Picture Credit : Google
