Lunar Surface Communications System (LSCS), Nokia

IM-2 · landed · commercial payload

A 4G/LTE cellular network for the lunar surface: a 'network in a box' base station on the lander and radio device modules on Lunar Outpost's MAPP rover and Intuitive Machines' hopper. It was to show that terrestrial cellular technology can carry video, commands and telemetry between surface vehicles, out to about 2 km.

PI: not in public sources (Nokia's statements on the mission come from Thierry Klein, President of Bell Labs Solutions Research)
Built by: Nokia Bell Labs (Nokia of America), with Intuitive Machines and Lunar Outpost as partners; NASA Johnson managed the Tipping Point project (company)

Technology	surface-to-surface communications (4G/LTE cellular network)
Moon Base need	#0103 (Gap #0103's lunar target is 3GPP cellular (4G, 5G), Wi-Fi and RF networks for surface users, and NASA's Lunar Surface Technology page reports Nokia's 4G/LTE landing. The tie to #0103 is the study's reading, but the gap's own wording names the technology. NASA has since chosen 5G and Wi-Fi 6 for its lunar surface network.)
Route onto CLPS	STMD; NASA's fifth Tipping Point solicitation (STMD), lunar surface topic. NASA selected Nokia on 14 October 2020 at about $14.1 million. Nokia arranged its own ride: Intuitive Machines' Lunar Payload and Data Service on IM-2, with Lunar Outpost's rover as a user. It flew on the lander company's capacity, not as a NASA CLPS payload.; 2020-10-14
Timeline	first funding 2020-10 (STMD Tipping Point award to Nokia); first flight test not in public sources; selected 2020-10-14; launch 2025-02-26; landing 2025-03-06
On the Moon	partly operated
FO	none

Flights before the Moon

None found in the public sources.

Heritage hardware

• commercial technology: Built on Nokia's terrestrial 4G/LTE products, re-engineered by Nokia Bell Labs into a small, low-power, space-hardened system. Before flight it went through acceleration, shock, drop, vibration and thermal vacuum tests on the ground. No earlier spaceflight of the system is named in public sources.

"This system employs the same cellular technology used by billions of devices on Earth, reconceptualized by Nokia Bell Labs to meet the unique requirements of a lunar mission."
— NASA press kit, Commercial Lunar Payload Services IM-2 (Intuitive Machines-2) Lunar Mission

"We’ve essentially performed three types of tests: acceleration, shock and vibration."
— Blast off! How Nokia is engineering an LTE network to survive a journey to the Moon - Modul8, Nokia blog, first published on nokia.com

"After months of testing and validation with Nokia Bell Labs"
— Nokia’s cellular network ready for Moon as Intuitive Machines completes final lunar lander instal…, Nokia release, 7 Jan 2025

Funding before the lunar flight

• STMD Tipping Point contract to Nokia of America (80LARC21C0009), managed in GCD as TechPort 116365. The record names the 4G LTE lunar demonstration on Intuitive Machines' service, so this is the payload's money. Nokia's own share is not in public sources. (STMD Tipping Point (GCD); 2021-2025): $14,288,767

"DEVELOP, DEPLOY, AND DEMONSTRATE A FOURTH GENERATION LONG-TERM EVOLUTION (4G LTE),PROXIMITY WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM TO THE LUNAR SURFACE"
— USAspending.gov, award 80LARC21C0009, description; obligated 14288767.0, 2021-03-08 to 2025-06-30, NASA Langley

How it got onto CLPS

"Nokia of America Corporation of Sunnyvale, California, $14.1 million"
— 2020 NASA Tipping Point Selections - NASA

"Inspired by terrestrial technology, Nokia proposes to deploy the first LTE/4G communications system in space."
— 2020 NASA Tipping Point Selections - NASA

"In this project Nokia will develop, deploy, and demonstrate a 4G/LTE communications system on the lunar surface utilizing Intuitive Machines' (IM's) Lunar Payload and Data Service (LPDS)."
— TechPort project 116365, description

"Nokia of America Corporation of Sunnyvale, California, $14.1 million"
— NASA Announces Partners to Advance ‘Tipping Point’ Technologies for the Moon, Mars - NASA, release of 14 October 2020

"These Tipping Point technology demonstrations were funded by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate"
— Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1 (PRIME-1) - NASA, section 'What’s Flying with PRIME-1?'

"In 2020, NASA selected Nokia to deploy the first 4G/LTE network on the lunar surface via the Tipping Point program."
— NTRS 20240003815, page 7

On the Moon

The network in a box powered up on the Moon, took commands from Nokia's control center, reported an 'on-air' state with base station, radio and core all working, and ran for the whole 25-minute window the lander could power it. No call was made: the hopper's device module had gone too cold by the time the network came on, and the rover never deployed. NASA counts it as a partial success.

"The NIB ran without any service interruption for the entire 25-minute power window."
— Nokia and Intuitive Machines deliver first cellular network to the Moon; achieve some key mission…, Nokia release, 10 Mar 2025

"Nokia was unable to place the first cellular call on the Moon because of significant power limitations due to the orientation of the Athena lander’s solar panels after landing."
— Nokia and Intuitive Machines deliver first cellular network to the Moon; achieve some key mission…

"the Hopper module’s temperature had dropped well below operational range"
— Nokia and Intuitive Machines deliver first cellular network to the Moon; achieve some key mission…

"were only able to complete some objectives"
— NASA Receives Some Data Before Intuitive Machines Ends Lunar Mission - NASA

"Intuitive Machines landing on its side prevented MAPP's deployment"
— Private mini rover aboard sideways Athena moon lander was ready to roll — but it couldn't get out, Lunar Outpost statement

FO's role

Grade: none. No FO project or flight by Nokia or of the LSCS. FO did fly a San Diego State project on a 5G phased array for lunar relay nodes (FIGARO-FT, TechPort 106617), but that is another team and another device, so it is a topic match only, not 'related'.

"5G Array for Lunar Relay Operations Flight Test (FIGARO-FT)"
— TechPort project 106617, title (FO project, San Diego State University)

Who built it

"The second Tipping Point technology will test a Lunar Surface Communications System developed by Nokia."
— NASA press kit, Commercial Lunar Payload Services IM-2 (Intuitive Machines-2) Lunar Mission

"Nokia partnered with two leading commercial space companies to deploy and test its 4G/LTE based Lunar Surface Communications System (LSCS)"
— NTRS 20250001947, page 2 (SpaceOps 2025 paper, NASA and Nokia Bell Labs)

"Raymond S Wagner"
— TechPort project 116365, contacts, Project Manager (NASA; LTE Proximity Communications, GCD)

Moon Base need

"Advanced 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) cellular (e.g. 4G, 5G),"
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: ESDMD #0103: High-bandwidth, High-reliability Surface-to-Surface Communications, performance target, Moon

"Deploy communications systems that can operate in the lunar geological, electromagnetic, and radio frequency environment."
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: Moon Base technology and knowledge challenges, Surface-to-surface comms

"landed on the Moon in 2025, successfully powering up"
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: Lunar surface technology for the Moon Base, Quick Facts of NASA's Lunar Surface Technology page

Open questions

• Nokia's cost share in the Tipping Point, and the price of its ride on IM-2: not in public sources.
• The LSCS principal investigator: not named in public sources.
• Is Modulate Space, which NASA paid about $38 million in September 2026 for a lunar 5G network, linked to the Nokia LSCS team? Nokia's Moon blog posts now sit on modul8space.com, but no source here says so.
• Did Nokia publish the lunar propagation data or a post-mission model, an objective in TechPort 116365? Not in public sources.