Calling the Moon: Startup to Put Cellphone Tower on the Moon

Space.com ^ | August 10, 2017 03:25pm ET | Tereza Pultarova

[BenLurkin]

German company Part Time Scientists, which originally competed for the Google Lunar X Prize race to the moon, plans to send a lander with a rover in late 2018 to visit the landing site of Apollo 17. (Launched in 1972, this was NASA's final Apollo mission to the moon.) Instead of using a complex dedicated telecommunication system to relay data from the rover to the Earth, the company will rely on LTE technology — the same system used on Earth for mobile phone communications.

"We are cooperating with Vodafone in order to provide LTE base stations on the moon," Karsten Becker, who heads embedded electronics development and integration for the startup, told Space.com.

"What we are aiming to do is to provide commercial service to bring goods to the moon and also to provide services on the surface of the moon," Becker added.

Part Time Scientists has a launch contract for late 2018 with Space X as a secondary payload on the Falcon 9 rocket. Becker said the company believes it will be the first private entity to reach the surface of the moon, suggesting that none of the Google Lunar X Prize participants are likely to meet the December 2017 deadline for the competition. (Part Time Scientists itself withdrew from the Google Lunar X Prize earlier this year due to the time constraints of the competition.)

The Falcon 9 will carry the team's spacecraft, Alina, to the geostationary transfer orbit, a highly elliptical Earth orbit whose highest point is 26,000 miles (42,000 kilometers). From there, Alina will continue on its own to the moon.

"We will soft-land on the moon and disembark our two rovers, the Audi Lunar Quatro rovers, with which we are going to drive up to Apollo 17," Becker said.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Sooty diesels are worse.

[Fresh Wind]

Back in olden times, phone booths only had windows in the doors and he needed a place to stash his street clothes.

[Slyfox]

So, the use of the moon cell tower will be when most people are sleeping?

[a fool in paradise]

How will that work?

There are no Clouds on the Moon.

[bgill]

Now we’ll be getting annoying telemarketing calls from the moon.

[bgill]

To change into their Superman costumes, duh.

[DungeonMaster]

"Hello" sent
One thousand one
One thousand two
One thou
"Hello" received on other end.
"Hello" sent from other end.
One thousand one
One thousand two
One thou
"Hello" received by original sender.

[upchuck]

My StraightTalk hotspot is in warm-up mode just waiting for this. The moon cell tower is even LTE. Impressive!

[BobL]

Reporters are TOO STUPID to even realize the time lag.

[SgtHooper]

The liberals are already looking to a wind generator to provide power.

[newgeezer]

Reporters are TOO STUPID to even realize the time lag.

Those on TV (and anyone who watches them) should be all too familiar with it. Whenever a TV anchor has to talk to a reporter who's live in the field, the dead air between the questions and the answers seems like forever... and that's when they're both here on planet Earth!

[Rebelbase]

Anyone recall the hacking magazine, 2600? They used to have a "payphones around the world" feature.