It has been over 50 years since that Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on the Moon, becoming the last men to do so, as part of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. That is all set to change within the next few years, as NASA continues preparation for the launch […]
It has been over 50 years since that Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on the Moon, becoming the last men to do so, as part of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
That is all set to change within the next few years, as NASA continues preparation for the launch of Artemis III in 2027, which, if all goes to plan, will see humankind explore the Moon once more.
While it is incredible to think it has taken half a century between Moon landings, what is even more overwhelming is the gulf in communications technology between 1972 and 2027.
NASA described the Apollo 6 communications system as supporting voice, television, data, and tracking links between astronauts, their modules, and Earth. The team relied on a Unified S-band system for voice and tracking, with a high-gain antenna on a folding boom and VHF antennas on the Service and Command Modules.
Now, telecoms in space is set to take a giant leap forward—with Nokia Bell Labs planning to launch the first 5G network in space.
Apollo 15, 1971 mission, fourth Moon landing: visualisation from Nokia
Lift off!
“Nokia Bell Labs will build the first cellular network on the Moon later this year, and we will incorporate high-speed communications capabilities in the next-generation spacesuits for Artemis III,” explains Thierry Klein, president of Bell Labs Solutions Research, as we sit down on Nokia’s stand at this year’s Mobile World Congress.
Klein, who has been with the research division since before Nokia acquired it through its 2016 purchase of Alcatel-Lucent, is visibly excited about his team’s work with NASA.
So how did an offshoot of Western Electric that has been a key research division in (terrestrial) telecoms infrastructure for over a century, become part of the space race?
“It comes down to looking at, collectively, what everyone wants to do in space over the next five-to-ten years,” he says. “Right now we have three missions that are on their way to the Moon – that has never happened before.”
Private missions, alongside ones supported by NASA and other space agencies, have reignited the space race, with interest in the Moon higher than it has been since the sixties.
Today, NASA was due to launch its SPHEREx and PUNCH missions aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, although at the time of writing, the launch has been delayed until March 7 – the fourth time it has been halted.
The reignited interest in space, which extends beyond the Moon to a potential Mars mission, isn’t just scientific. “It is economic as well,” Klein adds. “And none of it will happen without communication technology.”
Connecting the Moon
Looking back at the original lunar missions, the pictures, video and sound quality are “awful” by today’s standard, he says.
The voices across the comms crackle and break, while the beautiful pictures of the Moon we all remember were taken at low resolutions using film and were later developed into better looking versions.
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“Nobody wants to work that way now,” adds Klein. “We see the Moon as another enterprise environment. In the future, human presence on the Moon wont just be temporary – there will be sustained habitats, and activities like mining, drilling, transportation.
“The environment doesn’t look much different from inside a terrestrial mine or an offshore oil rig. You will need connected devices.”
IM-2 lander is set to land near Moon’s South Pole
To connect those devices, you need a network, and while first thoughts might go to satellite communications, most satellites in space are either in geostationary orbit (ie following the Earth’s rotation) or lower in the atmosphere (Low Earth Orbit). So the Moon would be out of reach at times.
“Our view is let’s take all of the technologies that we developed for terrestrial applications and apply them to space,” Klein explains.
When Nokia Bell first started working on this project seven years ago, the space industry was not on the same path, thinking it could use UHF (ultra high frequency) technology that already existed for space shuttles.
But this limited certain use cases, including 4K video, due to limitations with radio technology.
But through its research arm, Nokia claims that the same technology found on a terrestrial 4G or 5G mobile network can function on the moon, supporting the scientific functions needed to continue humankind’s exploration efforts.
Part of NASA’s “Tipping Point” initiative, Nokia Bell Labs will deploy the first cellular 4G/LTE network on the Moon’s South Pole during Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission scheduled for this year.
A network solution the size of a pizza box will be attached to Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander Athena.
Once Athena lands, the network will deploy and configure itself automatically, creating high-speed links to Lunar Outpost’s MAPP rover, Intuitive Machines’ Micro-Nova hopper, and even astronauts’ spacesuits.
This will enable mission operators to remotely pilot lunar vehicles while streaming vital telemetry data to mission control in Houston via Intuitive Machines’ direct-to-Earth link. The network will also support real-time video broadcasts from the vehicles.
But beyond the obvious of exploring worlds unknown, why is Nokia interested in space networks?
“We see the Moon as an enterprise environment that is just very far away,” says Klein. “Think about the lunar economy that is set to grow there as more human missions land. There will be sustained habitats – and there is a big opportunity there!”
The dark side of Moon telecoms
While Klein is understandably excited, he admits that shifting a terrestrial, standards-based network from Earth to the Moon comes with several key challenges.
Thierry Klein is leading Nokia Bell’s telecoms in space project
Firstly, everything that goes up in any mission needs to be compact – light enough and small enough not to be a burden on the rockets carrying the devices yet able to run enough power to support a substantial network.
“That needs massive hardware and software integration, but is vital,” he explains.
Secondly, the environmental challenges must be accounted for. These aren’t just related to the harshness of the Moon itself, but also the pressure and vibration of sensitive network equipment travelling on a rocket.
“These are commercial technologies and components, so we’ve had to do some hardening on the equipment to prepare them for these environments.”
The network also needs to be autonomous – they can’t rely on telecoms engineers to fix any hardware issues in space, so the networks need to be physically robust, but also technically robust.
Klein – who describes himself as a childhood “space geek” adds: “We did a lot of work on a software reliability framework, software redundancy. The network needs to be almost self-deploying and self-configuring, because the time of those on the missions is very precious.”
He wraps up our conversation with a smile, reflecting on how Nokia is applying lessons from this project to other fields.
“I remember watching my first space launch as a kid, so it is fascinating to see how one industry – the one I work in – gets applied to another industry that I never thought I’d be involved with.
“There’s so many lessons we’ve learned at the intersection. The language both industries speak is very different, but the innovation is a shared tongue. They excel at building spacecraft and designing spacesuits and doing things we have no clue about. But at the same time, they look at us and think the same.”
