• As part of Intuitive Machines IM-2 mission, Nokia Bell Labs’ Lunar Surface Communications System landed on the Moon aboard the Athena lander, powered up and transmitted operational data back to Earth
• These milestones are key steps toward proving the viability of cellular technologies for critical communications on future lunar missions

Nokia announced it successfully delivered the first cellular network to the Moon as part of the Intuitive Machines IM-2 mission to the lunar south pole region. Nokia successfully validated key aspects of the network’s operation, including the transmission of operational data to Intuitive Machines’ ground station and Nokia’s mission control center on Earth and the activation of multiple communication solution components. The IM-2 mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative and Nokia’s technology demonstration was funded in part by NASA’s Tipping Point initiative.

Nokia was unable to place the first cellular call on the Moon because of significant power limitations due to the orientation of the Athena lander’s solar panels after landing. However, Nokia Bell Labs’ Lunar Surface Communications System (LSCS) was engineered for optimized power consumption, and in a 25-minute window in which it was able to receive power, the LSCS successfully completed multiple tests. These achievements serve as key steps toward proving cellular technologies meet the mission-critical communications needs of lunar exploration and beyond.

The LSCS’s “network in a box” (NIB) installed on Athena successfully powered on and received telecommands from and issued responses to the Nokia mission control center in Sunnyvale, California. Nokia’s operations and management software on Athena also started up and connected to Intuitive Machines’ ground station. NIB telemetry data confirmed a successful operational “on-air” state, indicating that all its subcomponents — base station, radio and network core — were all functioning properly. The NIB ran without any service interruption for the entire 25-minute power window.

Right after landing, telemetry data showed that the LSCS device module on board Intuitive Machines’ Micro Nova Hopper was drawing power consistent with the device module being operational and functioning properly; this is an indication that it was ready to receive a connection. Unfortunately, when the NIB was activated several hours later, the Hopper module’s temperature had dropped well below operational range due to power constraints and the extreme conditions in Athena’s crater landing site, and a connection between the device module and the NIB could no longer be established.

“In space exploration there are big successes and small successes,” said Thierry E. Klein, President of Bell Labs Solutions Research at Nokia. “We delivered and deployed the first cellular network on the Moon and we are incredibly proud of the results that we have achieved despite the very challenging circumstances. If our device modules had been functional when our network in a box was powered up, all indications tell us that we would have been able to complete the first-ever cellular call on the Moon. The successes we were able to achieve are still significant. We were able to take commercial off-the-shelf components that connect billions of people on Earth and harden them to operate on the Moon. These initial milestones demonstrate that cellular technologies have a key role to play in space exploration, and we look forward to future missions with NASA, Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and other partners in the space industry.”

Nokia and Nokia Bell Labs have always maintained a strong commitment to science, resulting in some of the greatest innovations and discoveries known to humankind. By working with NASA and partnering with innovative companies like Intuitive Machines and Lunar Outpost, Nokia is shaping the way we communicate beyond the confines of Earth. This commitment will continue well beyond IM-2 as Nokia explores the possibilities for communications on the Moon and Mars and helps foster the burgeoning space economy.