As part of NASA’s Artemis Mission which seeks to relaunch Humans to the Moon by 2024, Nokia has secured $14.1 Million in funding off the Program’s joint pool of $370 Million, to deploy 4G LTE networks that will help astronauts communicate better in space.

At the moment, NASA steadily communicates to Space equipment like the International Space Station (ISS), Robots, and the recently deployed Mars Rover (For Mars exploration) through a Deep Space Network (DSN) of antennas located around the world.

Additionally, Special Satellites are also used in support with the DSN antennas to facilitate constant communication between manned and unmanned equipment like autonomous rockets. But in the end, these communication systems would not be very ideal and reliable on the Moon’s Lunar surface.

Hence, Nokia has been contracted as the first Telecommunications company that will build a 4G LTE Communications Network system in Space as assigned by NASA.

Reliable 4G Network connectivity will make it easy for lunar Rovers, astronauts, ISS, and Artemis mission spacecraft to communicate effectively with each other.

According to Jim Reuter – the associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, Nokia has been tasked with a role of planning how reliable cellular communications will be achieved on the Moon’s Lunar surface.

With NASA funding, Nokia will look at how terrestrial technology could be modified for the lunar environment to support reliable, high-rate communications

Said Jim Reuter

Apparently, this is not the first time Nokia will be attempting to launch a 4G network on the moon. Previously the company had connived with Vodafone to partner with German aerospace company PTScientists and carmaker Audi back in 2018.

Through the partnership, Nokia and Vodafone wanted Quality HD Footage from the Moon to be streamed back to earth in real-time instead of telescopic images in a fashion similar to that of the Mars Rover, and other NASA Robotic Vehicles capturing footage of the Red Planet.

Furthermore, the duo had planned to launch a Moon Lander aboard a Space X rocket and set down near the Apollo 17 Crew landing site for further experiments on the Moon Buggy astronauts left behind in 1972.

But in the light of uncertainty, the launch never happened, and now, Nokia is set to resurrect the Plan by deploying working 4G networks as part of NASA’s Artemis Program.

“The system could support lunar surface communications at greater distances, increased speeds, and provide more reliability than current standards,” –– NASA noted during the Nokia contract award announcement.

Well, with NASA’s Artemis Program which includes the construction of Moon Landers under the HLS Program headlined by Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper continuing to evolve for the 2024 deadline, the deployment of a 4G LTE networks by Nokia will facilitate swift communications in Space and drive multi-planetary human presence.

We want to build the [lunar] infrastructure…that is going to enable an international partnership for the biggest, broadest, most diverse inclusive coalition of researchers and explorers in the history of humankind

NASA Administrator, Jim Bridenstine

The EchoStar 105/SES-11 blasted off from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Its satellite was due to be deployed approximately 36 minutes after liftoff. It’s the third time SpaceX has used one of its landed boosters for a second flight.

Falcon 9’s first stage for the EchoStar 105/SES-11 mission previously supported SpaceX’s 10th resupply mission to the International Space Station (CRS-10) in February of this year. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage landed on the ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ drone-ship, stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.However Space X is also planning another launch in early November.

NASA tech boss Douglas Terrier said the crew could be shielded with armour or electromagnetic force field, but these sound impractical. He said: “We’re looking at a range of things from drug therapies to more extreme genetic modification. They have ethical consequences so they’re still in experimental thought stages.”

NASA also hopes to keep astronauts safe by cocooning part of the spaceship in water and using bio-engineering to patch up their bodies’ cells. Dr Terrier said day-to-day running of the spaceship would be handed over to artificial intelligence capable of diagnosing diseases and directing robotic surgery.

However its to be remembered that NASA is trying its level besgt to see how it can discover more planets with earth like features and reports say many tests have been run on mars since it has earth like environments thus making it a great option for discovery as astronauts’s DNA shall be changed.

Between September 12 and 13, NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft observed the Martian atmosphere as a magnificent ultraviolet aurora 25 times brighter than any seen by the probe since entering Mars’ orbit in 2014 illuminated the planet.

The September 11 solar storm, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), that prompted the aurora was so powerful that it was detected on Earth, despite the fact that our planet was on the opposite side of the Sun during the event.