While it may still be a while before humans establish a presence on the Moon, Audi is collaborating with Vodafone and Nokia to create a cell phone network on the Earth’s only natural satellite. They aim for the network to be operational by next year, as reported by Reuters.
This cell network is designed to lay the groundwork for a privately-funded lunar mission. Nokia will develop the necessary hardware, which must weigh less than a sugar bag due to the difficulty of lifting extra weight in spacecraft. The companies opted for a 4G network instead of 5G, as the latter is still relatively new and its reliability has not been fully established.
The consortium will collaborate with PTScientists, a German company, with plans to launch in 2019. The hardware will be sent into space via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the launch scheduled from Cape Canaveral, according to Vodafone.
Audi is already partnering with PTScientists to develop a lunar rover as part of their bid for the $20 million Google-funded Lunar XPrize. Named the “Audi Lunar Quattro,” the electric rover features all-wheel drive, akin to Audi’s vehicles on Earth, but has six wheels instead of four. If successful, the Lunar Quattro could be the first wheeled machine to explore the Moon since the original lunar rovers built by Boeing and General Motors landed there over four decades ago.
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