Building a Lunar Network: Johnson Tests Wireless Technologies for the Moon 

NASA engineers attach backpacks loaded with radios, cameras and antennas to test the technology that could one day keep the explorers connected to the lunar surface. Their mission: Testing how astronauts on the moon will remain connected during the space balls of Artemis using 3GPP (LTE / 4G and 5G) and Wi-Fi technologies.

Raymond Wagner

Main investigator of the NASA Lunar 3GPP project

With Artemis, NASA will establish a long -term presence on the Moon, opening more from the lunar surface to exploration than ever. This growth in lunar activity will force astronauts to communicate transparently with each other and with scientific teams on earth.

“We determine what the software that uses these networks should look like,” said Raymond Wagner, principal investigator of the NASA Lunar 3GPP project and a member of Johnson Space Center’s wireless exploration laboratory (Jewl) in Houston. “We prototy it with standard commercial equipment and open source software to show what parts are necessary and how they interact.”

The next big step is delivered with Artemis III, which will land a crew on the Moon and will carry a 4G / LTE demonstration to broadcast videos and audio of astronauts on the lunar surface.

The vision goes further. “Right now, the Lander or the Rover will host the network,” said Wagner. “But if we go to the moon to stay, we can possibly want real cellular towers. The combination of Spatio itself already becomes the mobile phone of the astronaut, and the Rovers could act as mobile hot spots. In total, these will be the constituent elements of communication on the Moon.”

Back at Johnson’s, teams simulate lunar space walks, streaming videos, audio and telemetry on a private 5G network with simulated mission control. Work helps engineers refine how future systems work in difficult environments. The craters, the lunar regolith and other characteristics of the terrain all affect how the radio signals travel – lessons that will also go to Mars.

For Wagner, the project is to shape how humanity is experiencing the next exploration era. “We are targeting the real HD on the moon,” he said. “It’s going to be quite breathtaking.”