The Artemis mission is to put humans on the moon for the second time, after the historic milestone in 1972. Steve Oleson – head of the Compass Laboratory at NASA said Wi-Fi was necessary because the crew, the probe, Scientific instruments and mining equipment will need to communicate with Earth during long-term work on the moon.
At the same time, NASA said that uneven internet access and lack of access to technology in some areas of the US are a major obstacle, which is exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Wi-Fi from the moon will help solve problems on Earth |
According to a report by the National Coalition for Digital Inclusion, about 31% of Cleveland households do not have access to broadband internet.
After the report was published, an economic development organization in Cleveland, Ohio (USA) contacted NASA’s Glenn Research Center to analyze the state of technology “inequalities” in this area and Consider the prospect of using the internet on the moon to solve problems on Earth.
Through the Cleveland case, NASA researchers tried to assess how the internet on the moon would work on Earth. They compared the surface area of the moon with the area around the city of Cleveland, from which they realized that just installing a Wi-Fi router (router) on 20,000 light poles in Cleveland is enough to receive signals from the moon. , providing internet for every household here. Oleson estimates that the Wi-Fi frequencies on the moon could be the same as those on Earth, although the devices operate in two different environments.
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Astronauts need internet connection to work on the moon |
Placing routers no more than 100 meters apart, a family of 4 can access the network with download speeds of 7.5 Mbps, enough to meet basic needs such as doing homework, accessing banking, buying shopping, information search, but it won’t be enough for 4K video streaming or gaming.
The results of the research will be sent to the Artemis mission planners to create instruments that can operate in the harsh environment on the moon.
Up to now, broadcasting Wi-Fi on the moon is just an idea, but the NASA team hopes to turn the idea into reality to provide reliable internet to underserved communities. access to technology in the US.
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