NASA gave Nokia’s Bell Labs a $14.1M

NASA gave Nokia’s Bell Labs a $14.1 million in grant money to build out the Moon’s telecom infrastructure, Business Insider reports. Having a 4G network up and running by 2030 could help make life off-world more manageable. ⁠

The network would mainly help those at the moon base navigate their new habitat, stream video messages and remotely steer rovers and other space robots. 

The announcement was made as part of a series of new contracts in lunar surface research missions the space agency announced Wednesday. These contracts are part of a larger goal, which sees the agency working to develop new technologies that will eventually allow astronauts to live and work on a lunar base by 2028, according to NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine in a live broadcast, UPI reported.

"We need power systems that can last a long time on the surface of the Moon, and we need habitation capability on the surface," he explained.The contracts altogether are worth $370 million, with most of the more lucrative deals going towards larger space companies, such as SpaceX. However, a total of $14.1 million was allocated to Nokia. The mission-critical LTE network we have developed has been specially designed to withstand the extreme temperature, radiation and vacuum conditions of space, as well as the sizable vibrational impact during launch and landing on the lunar surface. This fully integrated cellular network meets the stringent size, weight and power constraints of space payloads in the smallest possible form factor."