Your boyfriend is on a
moon mission and isn’t able to reply back to your text? This is simply no
excuse anymore!

Well, the latest news
is that NASA has given Nokia of America $14.1 million to deploy a cellular
network on the moon! Yes, you heard that right! The grant is actually related
to the $370 million worth of contracts which are signed under NASA’s Tipping Point
selections – aimed to advance research and development regarding space
exploration.

The plan is to build a
4G/LTE network and eventually take it forward to 5G. According to NASA, it will
initially be claimed as the first LTE/4G communications system in space.

“The
system could support lunar surface communications at greater distances,
increased speeds, and provide more reliability than current standards.”–
wrote NASA in the official announcement.

Nokia’s research dept,
Bell Labs, has written a detailed thread on Twitter, talking about the company’s
aim to support the wireless operation of lunar rovers and navigation.

The network is
supposedly built to be compact as well as efficient, so that it could withstand
extreme temperature, radiation, and even the vacuum conditions of space.

According to UPI, NASA
has plans to live broadcast the announcement, which will reveal that
the network will extend to spacecraft and develop technology that is suitable
for the moon. Of course, there isn’t enough information regarding this project,
but it’s all in the works.