The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA)selected Nokia Bell Labs to participate in the 10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) program, which will design an integrated multi-service architecture to support a thriving economy on the Moon in the next decade and beyond. LunA-10 will design the essential infrastructure framework capable of supporting industrial activities, as well as scientific discovery.
Nokia will collaborate with the 13 other companies specializing in areas critical to establishing an integrated commercial economy on the Moon, such as energy, transport and construction. For instance, Nokia Bell Labs will be responsible for recommending a reliable, high-performance communications infrastructure, and it will also work closely with other LunA-10 companies to ensure that infrastructure may be efficiently transported and built on the lunar surface and that it would have reliable power sources once installed.
Thierry E. Klein, President of Nokia Bell Labs Solutions Research, said: “DARPA has had a direct hand in some of the most significant technology advancements of the last fifty years – the foundation of the Internet, the creation of GPS, and the rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccine. Nokia Bell Labs is thrilled to play a key role in DARPA’s next game-changing endeavor and help shape the infrastructure architecture for the lunar economy. Pushing the frontiers of technology is in Bell Labs’ DNA, and by creating the communication solutions blueprint for the Moon, we will help establish the foundations of a permanent human presence on the lunar surface.”
- As part of NASA’s Tipping Point initiative, Nokia is deploying the first cellular network on the Moon in 2024 to prove that 3GPP-based technology can meet the critical communications needs of future lunar and Martian missions.
