UK plans lunar phone network
Summary
Topics
The British National Space Centre (BNSC) has announced it will undertake a technical feasibility study of the MoonLITE mission.The study will report with a full mission schedule and costs late next year. Depending on the outcome, the Moon Lightweight Interior and Telecom Experiment mission could launch by around 2014, the BNSC said.
The plan for the mission is to put a satellite in orbit around the Moon for use as a telecoms station, relaying data from a network of geophysical instruments on the Moon's surface back to Earth.
The instruments will gather data on the strength and frequency of moonquakes and the thickness of the crust and core. They will also be able to determine whether organic material or water is present in the Moon's polar regions.
In addition to relaying this scientific data back to Earth, the satellite system should also ensure a full four-bar mobile signal for lunar colonists living in a Moon base which NASA wants to build after 2020.
Minister of state for science and innovation, Lord Drayson, said the mission could resolve fundamental questions about the composition of the Moon.
The BNSC said no decision will be made to proceed with, build or launch MoonLITE until the study has reported its findings.
A tender process for the feasibility study contract will run until March 2009. The study itself is expected to take nine months and will be supported by NASA - which is assessing any potential contribution it could make to the science and technology of the mission.
Talkback Most Recent of 7 Talkback(s)
-
RE: UK plans lunar phone network
now there's a great way to spend the taxpayer's money! Things must be perfect in the UK so there's got to be a way to spend it.
dbtinc5th Dec 2008 -
RE: UK plans lunar phone network
I think this is good planning. It would be great to have a solid phone system when the lunar outpost is built. Those that take a short-sighted view of this don't understand the complexity of something of this magnitude, and also take for granted the amount of technology currently orbiting the Earth enabling the use of cell phones today.
I personally hope that Great Britain succeeds mightily.
MikeBlane5th Dec 2008 -
RE: UK plans lunar phone network
This smacks of Monty Python. Can you see the skit? Michael Palin enters the Royal Lunar Telephone office in a space suit, and John Cleese is there at the desk. Michael wants a mobile phone, and starts naming phone models. John says over and over that he doesn't have one.
tburzio5th Dec 2008 -
This isn't going to happen.
The UK economy is broke. We can't even afford to decommission the finished-with nuclear power plants. We're also heading for an energy shortfall, so phones in space just isn't going to cut it. The only way this would happen is if private billionaires were to fund it.
peter_erskine@...6th Dec 2008 -
RE: May never be / Technology already exists
Great basic idea, but it may never happen, at least government backed. The Western nations are far past bankrupt -- or deliberately driven that way -- and there's going to be at least three to five years rebuilding economies first.
HOWEVER, the Japanese and/or Chinese will likely do this first. AND, long before this would become a reality, the capability for lunar and lunar and Earth orbital cell-phone users to communicate to and from Earth -- not just among lunar bases and lunar personnel -- will have already existed.
josephrot@...7th Dec 2008 -
I want my jet pack
Seriously. If we can't get jet packs, then why bother with phones in space?
Also, it will ruin one of the great movie taglines ever. Imagine "In space no one can hear you scream." replaced with "Can you hear me now?" Bollocks.
Jet packs for all9th Dec 2008 -
RE: UK plans lunar phone network
Wonder what the call rate to phone the moon would be?
graeme.davidson@...10th Dec 2008
Talkback - Tell Us What You Think
The best of ZDNet, delivered
ZDNet Newsletters
Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox
Facebook Activity
