Not Discourse! NASA Plans To Build A Wi-Fi Network On The Moon

Badan Antariksa Amerika (NASA) berencana untuk membangun jaringan Wi-Fi di Bulan. (foto: dok. NASA)

JAKARTA - The American Space Agency (NASA) plans to build a Wi-Fi network on the Moon. This is intended to help Artemis mission run smoothly without a hitch, and reach areas in the US that are not yet covered by a reliable internet connection.

The Artemis program aims to land a human on the Moon for the first time since 1972. The plan is to launch an unmanned mission around the Moon in 2021, followed by a crewed flyby on the Moon in 2023, then a Moon landing in 2024.

NASA's move to create a Wi-Fi network on the Moon is revealed in a new study by the agency of NASA's Compass Lab. Of course not without reason, NASA aims to make communication between crew, aircraft, and other equipment on the Moon and Earth run smoothly.

"(Because) crew, rover, science instruments, and mining equipment, will need a reliable communication link to the lunar basecamp or Artemis and eventually back to Earth", said Steve Oleson, Head of the Compass Lab at NASA Glenn, as quoted by Business Insider, Monday, October 18th.

NASA also reports that digital inequality and lack of access to adequate internet services are socio-economic problems across the US, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic situation. According to a report by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, about 31 percent of households in Cleveland do not have broadband access.

Following these findings, the Greater Cleveland Partnership, an economic development organization, with NASA's Glenn Research Center analyzed the technical barriers to digital inequality and looked at whether there were opportunities to use the Moon to break Earth's digital divide.

To assess how such a network might look on the Moon, the Compass Lab team at NASA's Glenn Research Center evaluated how a terrestrial network might operate in Cleveland's immediate neighborhood.

Their study compared the surface area of ​​the Moon with the area around Cleveland to address technical challenges associated with Wi-Fi connectivity in the local area. Although the equipment will be different due to the different environments of the Earth and the Moon, the Wi-Fi frequency can be the same as on Earth.