NASA awards contract to develop lunar 5G and Wi-Fi

NASA has awarded Modulate Space Corporation approximately $38 million to develop key elements of a lunar-surface communications system combining 5G mobile-network technology with Wi-Fi 6 wireless networking. The work is for NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and is intended to support future Moon Base surface operations.

The award is a firm-fixed-price contract, meaning its price is set in advance. It pays for development and demonstrations, rather than an already functioning lunar network.

Two overlapping work periods

NASA’s September 30 announcement sets out two work areas, each with its own scheduled contract period:

• 5G Network-in-a-Box development and laboratory demonstration: October 1, 2026, through January 31, 2028.
• Integrated lunar 5G and Wi-Fi surface network and planned flight demonstration on the Moon: November 30, 2026, through December 31, 2028.

The lunar-network work period therefore begins while the laboratory work period is still underway; the two are not scheduled as wholly separate, consecutive stages.

What NASA aims to learn

NASA says the two work areas are intended to produce a communications capability that can expand and follows established technical standards. The demonstrations will involve developing hardware, software and firmware—the software built into devices—to advance the integrated system.

The demonstrations are meant to help NASA understand the system’s architecture, or how its parts fit together, and its operational performance, or how it works in use. NASA says that knowledge should also allow the technology to evolve for future lunar-surface communications.