Nokia took the first 4G cell network to the moon, but could not call

If everything had gone as planned on March 6, right now there would be a small 4G LTE network in a tiny area of ​​the moon. Nokia’s first 4G Network provided connectivity to explorers as part of the IM-2 mission. The work had to pave the path to Artemis III of NASA in 2027, the first manned mission to the Moon since 1972, in which Nokia and Axiom Space will integrate 4G LTE communications capabilities in the space costumes of the astronauts.

Unfortunately, the Intuitive Machine landing module, Athena, landed sideways, similar to the original IM-1, in addition to 250 meters from its landing place planned in the South Lunar Pole. The orientation of the solar panels, the direction of the sun and the low temperatures of the crater where it landed contributed to Athena could not recharge. The company announced on March 7 that the mission quickly concluded. IM-2 was not the only ship that landed recently on the moon; Earlier this week, the Blue Ghost 1 mission of Firefly Aerospace landed successfully.

Upon reaching the moon

Although Nokia’s 4G network could not be deployed as planned, the company continues to affirm that “the first cell network to the moon” delivered “since “it validated key aspects of the operation of the network.” Inside Athena there were several instruments and Rovers along with the Network in A Box (NIB) of Nokia. In an interview at the Mobile World Congress 2025 (MWC), John Dow, General Director of Nokia Bell Labs Space Systems, explained to Wired that NIB consists of the radio, the base station, the routing and the nucleus, all integrated into a compact system.

According to Nokia, the NIB was successfully lit: it received orders and transmitted data to the terrestrial station of Intuitive Machines on Earth. All system components worked perfectly, although it was only online about 25 minutes until the current was cut. The company planned to make the first mobile call on the moon with the explorers, but these were not deployed.

What should happen? A few hours after landing, and after the system’s checks, the Athena door would have opened and its on -board vehicles would have deployed. After traveling the lunar surface, the vehicles would extend their antennas and connect to the network. “Think about it as a connected vehicle. It has user equipment that we have built and will connect with a 4G link to the network in a box in Athena,” says Dow. One of these vehicles was the Micro Nova Hopper, nicknamed ‘Grace’, of intuitive machines; Designed to jump to a lunar crater in permanent shadow to take photographs and readings, in search of possible water ice signs.

All the data collected would be transferred to the NIB in Athena, which would transmit them to Earth through an ascending link by long -distance satellite. According to Dow, robots were supposed to travel less than 2 kilometers away from Athena, around 1.9 kilometers, which is the distance at which broadband connectivity is supported. If the Outpost lunar mission controllers in Colorado sent orders to the robots, the data would travel through the direct data transmission service to the land of intuitive machine to Athena and disperse through the 4G network.

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Connection on Earth as in space

Although the 4G LTE network is the same as on Earth, Nokia’s lunar surface communications system was optimized for space tripswith several redundancies to recover from possible failures of hardware or electronic. Nokia’s components were replaced by lighter materials whenever possible. For example, the company replaced a heavy cavity filter with a ceramic -based solution, reducing its weight five times. He also designed a thermal management solution that manages “excess heat by driving and radiation”, since it cannot use the convection dependent on the atmosphere used in terrestrial electronics.

This 4G NIB had a shorter life than expected, but even if the mission had been successful, the NIB would remain of short duration. According to Dow, it was not planned to survive the lunar night, the IM-2 mission should end at that same time, since the solar cells of the equipment would not have energy to feed the devices. For the Artemis III mission, the network and the modules of the space costumes will be built to survive the extreme temperatures of the moon, which can reach 250 ° (121 ° C) or the -208 ° F (-133 ° C).