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Communications between astronauts and satellites in the Solar System are complicated, or at least more complex than we imagine.
While on Earth the 5G network - which allows mobile connections to surf the Internet at higher speed - is the novelty, NASA has launched a plan to have a 4G communication network on the Moon.
And as if that were not enough, the US government agency wants to do it by 2024.
"Together, NASA and industry are developing a variety of mission-ready capabilities to support a sustainable presence on the Moon and future human missions to Mars," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in a statement from the agency.
The objective is clear: to develop a 4G network on the Moon that allows faster communication between astronauts, space vehicles, habitats and lunar modules.
According to CNN Business, the astronauts will use this wireless network for "data transmission, the control of lunar vehicles, real-time navigation on the lunar geography and the transmission of high definition videos."
They would have a kind of locator like Google Maps and a messaging service like WhatsApp, which allows them to send photos and videos of higher quality and faster.
And Nokia will be in charge of carrying it out.
NASA, responsible for the US civil space program and aeronautical and aerospace research, has assigned this lunar communication project to Nokia of North America, owned by the Finnish Nokia.
The company has four years and 14.1 million dollars (11.94 million euros) to develop the entire 4G infrastructure with all the challenges and problems that come with doing it on the Moon.
The biggest challenge
Nokia will have to work for a hostile terrain and do what no other company has done.
According to experts from NASA, the company will face a series of difficulties such as "radiation, extreme temperatures or the fact that there is a different gravity, even the vibration that can cause lunar launches."
In addition, the 4G network on Earth is supported by giant cell phone towers with huge power generators and radios, a structure that for now is unthinkable on the lunar surface.
This means that Nokia will have to make use of a much more compact technology, especially since it has to be able to send it inside a space rocket.
But the lunar communication project is just one part of something much bigger.
NASA wants to have astronauts working on a lunar base by 2028. For this, they have awarded 370 million dollars (313.28 million euros) to more than a dozen US companies to implement various technologies on the lunar surface.
Nokia's 4G is just one of them, as the other innovations consist of remote power generation, cryogenic freezing, new robotics and a safer landing, among others.
SpaceX, the aerospace manufacturing and space transportation services company founded by Elon Musk, is also among those chosen and has obtained a budget of 53.2 million (45 million euros).
"NASA's investment in innovative technology demonstrations, led by US companies small and large in nine states, will expand what is possible in space and on the lunar surface," Bridenstine said in the statement.
But they go step by step.
Before the base, the first objective is to carry out the mission "Artemis" in 2024, which consists of returning to the Moon and doing it with a woman in command, since since the trips began in 1969 only 12 people have visited the Moon , and they have all been men.
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