The Firstever LTE Network on the Moon: Challenges and Prospects

Mobile cellular networks are very popular across the globe, and they are found at all places where human settlements are present. Long term evolution (LTE) is a popular standard for mobile wireless communications. It has been deployed in almost all the countries. These networks are deployed to support various services, such as voice, image, video, text, and data transmission. In 2024, NASA and Nokia together get ready to deploy an LTE network on the moon. This project was planned in 2020, and NASA selected Nokia as the vendor for this lunar LTE network deployment mission. The LTE network on the moon would help in the enhancement of lunar exploration. The common services of LTE are planned to be deployed on the lunar surface. In addition to that, some moon specific valueadded services will also be deployed to support the exploration tasks. The deployed network would send the pictures, videos, and other sensor measured data from the lunar surface back to earth. This lunar network will be supported by the orbiting satellites and other peripheral networks. In this paper, the basic features and characteristics of the first lunar LTE network and its utilities have been studied.