Every now and then, a story comes along that just makes me go, “Oh yes, oh crikey yes, that’s genius, I have to tell people about it.”
Or, more accurately, it does make me say that after I’ve stopped having a gigglefit about it. So it was with this gem of a story, that I saw this morning, on Silicon.com. Basically, NASA and the British National Space Centre (BNSC) have laid down plans to set up the first mobile phone network… in space, or more specifically, on the Moon!
Now, you may ask why, but NASA have made their plans to set up a colony on the Moon’s southern pole, by 2020, very clear. Needless, if they’re going to do that, and if they plan to set up a working community there, they need to have communication. And given that presumably people will be living their lives up there, they need their own private communication, not just a communal radio room, lest they re-enact The Shining and go mental.
Initially, the network will be set up using satellites, which would allow the signal to be bounced back to Earth, but to mind, it’s not too hard to visualise using base stations on the surface of the Moon itself, with smaller handsets. Possibly something a bit more than a Nokia N82, though…
Oh, and let’s not forget, that would also allow scientific instruments to instantly send their results back to Mission Control, as, say, a text message. In fact, I can just imagine it now:
“Misn cmplt, no alienz fnd.”
Oh, and let’s not forget that us Brits are integral to the mission. There would be no MoonLite space mobile phone network without the satellite specialists of Guildford. We’re promised data speeds of 3kbps, which is about 2.4 million times slower than the current crop of HSDPA phones and Mobile Broadband packages.
But, then, let’s be honest, the current technology won’t work ON THE MOON! Now, that’s what I call Roaming!
Of course, one thing we haven’t considered is how the Moon’s own natural inhabitants feel about it. Well… I say that, but there is documentary footage of them not being happy about it!
That was the CEO of ClangerTel, talking about the competition MoonLite (please god let the mission controller be Mr Spoon) will bring to the Moon’s mobile phone marketplace. Which isn’t good, as they’re already losing ground in the marketplace to the new network SoupDragOnFone…
Would you like to use your phone on the Moon? Do you think Technical Markus has quite patently lost it? Leave us a comment and have your say!