Nokia is putting the first cellular network on the moon

Intuitive Machines, the private company behind the first commercial lander that touched down on the moon, will launch a second lunar mission from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The plan is to deploy a lander, a rover, and hopper to explore a site near the lunar south pole that could harbor water ice, and to put a communications satellite on lunar orbit.  But the mission will also bring something that’s never been installed on the moon or anywhere else in space before—a fully functional 4G cellular network. Nokia designed components that are robust against radiation, extreme temperatures, and the sorts of vibrations that will be experienced during the launch, flight, and landing. They put all these components in a single “network in a box”, which contains everything needed for a cell network except the antenna and a power source.