As part of a project to back the first privately funded moon mission, mobile phone network will for the first time be taken to the moon next year, enabling high-definition streaming from the lunar landscape back to earth.
Tech companies including Vodafone Germany, network equipment maker Nokia and carmaker Audi on Tuesday, hinted that they are working together to support the mission, 50 years after NASA astronauts first landed on the moon.
According to Vodafone, it had chosen Nokia as its technology partner to build a space-grade network which would be a small piece of hardware weighing less than a bag of sugar.
Vodafone also said, the companies are working with Berlin-based company PTScientists on the project and have scheduled a launch date in 2019, from Cape Canaveral on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Vodafone Germany Chief Executive, Hannes Ametsreiter, said “This project involves a radically innovative approach to the development of mobile network infrastructure.”
An executive involved said the decision to build a 4G network rather than a state-of-the-art 5G network was taken owing to the fact that, the next generation network remain in trial stage and are not stable enough to ensure workability from the lunar surface.
