Partners with the leading network provider will connect robot and human lunar occupants.

With a boost into space on the fenders of a lunar lander and intrepid rover, Nokia intends to prove cellular technology's potential for connecting future lunar explorations with NASA's upcoming IM-2 mission.

After many long months of testing, the partnership announced the successful final integration of Nokia's Lunar Surface Communication System (LSCS) "network in a box" into Intuitive Machines' IM-2 mission lander, named Athena.

Intuitive Machines – a diversified space exploration, infrastructure, and services company – successfully landed its Nova-C class lunar lander Odysseus on the Moon, returning the United States to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972. The company's products and services are focused on fundamentally disrupting lunar access economics through its four in-space business units: Lunar Access Services, Orbital Services, Lunar Data Services, and Space Products and Infrastructure.

Athena and Nokia's lunar communications system will voyage to the lunar south pole region in the upcoming IM-2 mission, where Nokia and Intuitive Machines intend to deploy the first cellular network on the Moon.

Engineers installed the LSCS on one of Athena's upper carbon-composite panels. The system must safely traverse the 239,000-mile journey to the Moon, survive intense stresses of heat and g-force during take-off and landing, and operate optimally upon arrival on the lunar surface.

Intuitive Machines also integrated the network into Athena's thermal protection system, which expels heat when the network is operating, and supplies heat to protect the network when it is idle.

Two separate modules comprise the additional components of Nokia's LSCS, installed in two lunar mobility vehicles:

• Intuitive Machines' Micro-Nova Hopper – a miniature lander designed to search for water ice in permanently shadowed regions of the Moon.

• Lunar Outpost's Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) – a rover built for traversing extreme environments on the Moon, which will carry the payloads from Nokia and others up to several kilometers away from the landing site.

Nokia's lunar communications system will utilize the same 4G/LTE cellular technology used on Earth, with a reimagined design to meet the unique requirements of lunar missions. Designed to handle surface connectivity between the lander and vehicles, LSCS will carry high-definition video streaming, command-and-control communications, and telemetry data.

Intuitive Machines plans to relay data from the LSCS back to Earth as well using its direct-to-Earth data transmission service.

"We intend to prove that cellular technologies can provide the reliable, high-capacity and efficient connectivity needed for future crewed and uncrewed missions to the Moon and eventually Mars," said Thierry Klein, President of Bell Labs Solutions Research at Nokia. "Cellular technology has irrevocably transformed the way we communicate on Earth. There's no reason it can't do the same for communications on other worlds."

Lunar Outpost

Lunar Outpost's robotic systems, including the exploration-class MAPP, are set to power the new space economy through robotics, mobility, and space resources, with multiple rovers headed to the Moon for resource exploration and infrastructure development; and technologies for creating oxygen on Mars.

Dial M for the Moon

Nokia and Intuitive Machines' partnership includes NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate via its Tipping Point initiative, which funds industry-developed space technologies that can foster the development of commercial space capabilities and benefit future NASA missions.

One of Intuitive Machines' mission goals will be to identify and map precious resources on the Moon, such as scanning for large concentrations of hydrogen indicative of ice deposits. All collected data would then be transmitted over the Nokia network to Athena, where it would be relayed back to Earth.

Once landed, the MAPP rover will exit from a protective enclosure on Athena, extend its antennas, and establish a connection to Nokia's cellular network on Athena. The rover will then set out to explore the Moon's south pole region, mapping the lunar surface while collecting stereo imagery and vital environmental data along the way.

"We believe delivering Nokia's 4G/LTE system to the lunar surface is a transformative moment in the commercialization of space and the maturity of the lunar economy," said Steve Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines. "We're taking thoughtful steps to achieve sustainability. Whether it's Nokia connecting surface assets, or Intuitive Machines' ability to transmit that data back to Earth and establish lunar data relay satellites, these innovations are mainstay capabilities we believe will define the Artemis generation, and they were initiated through NASA leadership."

Launch of Intuitive Machines' Athena lander bearing Nokia's communications payload is targeted for late February from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.