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Active TRL 5 (started at 4, targeting 6)
The 3GPP project evaluates telecommunication standards for communication between surface elements on Artemis missions. The project is in formulation supporting Artemis III/IV 3GPP/Wi-Fi comm demonstrations (DTO), refinement of 3GPP/Wi-Fi Artemis V comm requirements, operating test facilities for emulation and modeling, and evaluation of candidate EVA traverses with representative network traffic loads (voice/video/telemetry). The project will provide 3GPP/Wi-Fi implementation recommendations to the M2M CPADD and architectural recommendations to the M2M ADD.
Need: NASA needs to mitigate risks associated with transitioning from the legacy lunar surface communication architecture by analyzing and demonstrating alternative architectures.
Goal: Provide subject matter expertise and technical support to SCaN, EHP and SAO to facilitate the adoption of a hybrid 3GPP/Wi-Fi architecture.
3GPP-based communications and networking solutions present the most effective and future-proof technological path for advanced lunar surface communications (and beyond) for the next decades. 3GPP technologies (whether 4G, 5G or 6G in the future) have revolutionized voice, video, and data transmissions on Earth in consumer, enterprise, and industrial applications, and continue to enable significant gains in productivity, efficiency, and safety. The same benefits can be harnessed for space missions and the future lunar economy including, but not limited to the Artemis program. 3GPP technologies will revolutionize lunar surface communications by increasing data-rates, reducing latency, and providing critical voice, video and data communication capabilities across large surface areas while meeting the stringent reliability requirements of human-rated space flight missions.
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