The 4G infrastructure is projected to land on the Shackleton crater. Credit: NASA on Unsplash.

Finnish telecom company Nokia is planning to roll out a high-speed internet network on the Moon later this year, adding new dimensions to space exploration.

The company intends to deploy 4G network equipment aboard a SpaceX rocket, Nokia’s principal engineer Luis Maestro Ruiz De Temino, was reported to have said at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona.

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The new network will be supported by an antenna-equipped base station that will be contained in Nova-C lunar lander, designed by Nokia’s mission partner Intuitive Machines, to carry small commercial payloads on the Moon.

A solar-powered rover will also accompany the network equipment.

In a blog post, Nokia said both the components – lander and the rover – will be connected to each other through a long-term evolution network to provide lunar surface connectivity.

Once launched, the infrastructure is projected to land on the Shackleton crater, situated on the lunar south pole.

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The latest announcement comes two and a half years after Nokia was selected by US space agency, NASA, to develop the ‘first-ever cellular network’ on the Moon.

NASA will use this network within its Artemis 1 program to establish a ‘sustainable presence’ on the lunar surface.

The telecom company added that 4G network would help in providing crucial communication capabilities to support a wide range of data transmission applications such as real-time navigation as well as high-definition video streaming. 

It will also provide wireless connectivity to astronauts in addition to supporting biometric data exchange, voice and video communications, telemetry and deployment of robotic and sensor payloads.