Nokia to Deploy 4G Network on the Moon

­Intuitive Machines, the company behind the first commercial moon landing, is about to achieve a first for interstellar communications, helping to pave the way for a permanent moon base in the 2030s.

Back in February of last year, Intuitive Machines landed its Nova-C lunar lander, Odysseus, on the Moon, becoming the first commercial company to do so, along with the first American spacecraft to touch down there since Apollo 17 in 1972.

To call it a big deal would be an understatement. After the Cold War-era Space Race of the ‘50s and ‘60s, where America handily beat the Soviets to landing humans on another interstellar body, a mix of shifting priorities and greatly-reduced funding kept the U.S. (or any nation) from returning to the moon for more than half a century.

So Intuitive Machines’ achievement was a big deal, and it was the harbinger for an even bigger innovation – a fully-functional 4G cellular network on the moon.

In the past, and as MIT Tech Review points out, we’ve been able to rely on point-to-point radio communications, requiring a clear line of sight between transmitting and receiving antennas. And that’s worked fine because it’s generally just been one spacecraft and NASA.

But NASA’s Artemis program’s goal of a permanent moon base by the early 2030s calls for more sophisticated communicative capabilities.

Thus, when Intuitive Machines returns to the moon later this month, it’ll be toting a radhard 4G cellular network courtesy of Nokia.

While it’ll initially just be sufficient for communications between the lander and the two vehicles, Nokia will eventually provide a more expansive 4G or 5G cell network that would cover the entire Artemis base and its surroundings.

Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission is currently set for a launch date of February 26, 2025 at 7:02 PM EST.