This 4G pen had a shorter than the planned shelf life, but even if the mission was successful, the nib would still be short-lived. Dow says it wasn’t meant to survive the hard lunar night, which begins in about 9 days (a Monday and a lunar night, each one is the equivalent of about 14 earth days). In fact, the entire IM-2 mission is planned to end at this time, as the solar cells of the equipment would not have the energy to stimulate the devices. For the Artemis III mission, the network and modules will be built in the spacecraft to survive the extreme temperature of the moon, which can become as hot as 250 degrees Fahrenheit or as cold as -208 degrees.

Over time, the goal is to set up permanent base stations. “Once you have a robust connection, you can see how you can have a basic infrastructure to support all the visions people talk about,” Dow says. “If you see that the trip is to the lunar surface, you will have residents,” says Dow, “eventually it will have to bring the device where you no longer have to bring the network.”

The 4G LTE communication that will be integrated into the Axiom spacecraft in the future will be able to communicate from astronaut to Lander and astronaut to Lander to Astronaut. There is no smartphone for astronauts to keep their heads. “It would be a bit like driving in your car’s hands-free,” says Russell Ralston, Executive Vice President of Extravehicular Activity at Axiom Space. The microphones in the suit will be activated, and the network can handle several real-time HD video streams, not to mention telemetry and data from the built-in sensors.

So why not 5g? After all, the current generation of mobile network offers significant improvements to its predecessor. Dow says the development of space lasts long and that Nokia wanted to start with strong technology. At the time, 5g was still in its early adoption phase, and for the tests, the additional abilities were not necessary. “We absolutely work on the evolution to 5G,” he says. If you are wondering if Nokia is the only Network provider on the moon says Dow says a multi-selling environment will be flexible, mainly because Nokia uses a standardized technology with interoperability.

Michael López-Alegría, chief space trigger at Axiom Space, spent time at the International Space Station from 2006 to 2007 and also in 2022 Axiom-1 ordered the first commercial astronaut mission to the ISS. He says on the Apollo missions, astronauts are very trained in geology, and although the Artemis III space triggers undergo similar training, the ability to send a high-definition video from the moon to more qualified people has changed the game.

“Now they can show a geologist on earth [the things they’re seeing] Instead of letting them learn everything a PhD knows, ”says López-Alegría. “They can use it as a tool, a bit as we do on the ISS today. I think it’s a jump, and it’s 50 years later, isn’t it? So it must be. “

The IM-2 was the only scheduled test of Nokia’s 4G network on the moon. It was only partially successful, but Nokia did not share if there was another test now that IM-2 was suddenly closed. Dow says the company will continue with tests on earth before Artemis III.