It will be installed on the south pole of the Moon
Nokia will help NASA provide the Moon with 4G cellular network coverage.
The contract awarded to Nokia is part of a NASA program that advances commercial space capabilities and will benefit future missions. NASA plans to use these solutions for its Artemis program.
Initially, this mission was planned for 2022, but plans changed. It is now being reported that a SpaceX rocket will send a spacecraft with a 4G base station to the Moon later this year, but there is no exact date yet. The lander will establish a station at the south pole of the Moon.
The first challenge in getting the network up and running is to have space-ready cellular equipment that meets the appropriate size, weight and power requirements, and to deploy it without a technician
Walt Engelund, Deputy Assistant Program Administrator, Space Technology Mission Directorate
The base station is built at Bell Labs using a number of commercial off-the-shelf components. It will be loaded onto a lander made by the US company Intuitive Machines and, once deployed, will connect the lander via radio equipment to two moving vehicles.
First — The Lunar Outpost rover will explore the area near Shackleton Ridge, and another, the Micro-Nova bunker, will dive into Shackleton Crater to confirm previously discovered evidence of lunar ice there. The ice images transmitted back to the lander and then to Earth in near real time via a cellular network will be the first of their kind in the world.