月球都要有4G了

Half a century after the first humans walked on the moon, Earth's satellite buddy will finally be getting its first communications system. That's right, soon the moon will be graced with a 4G cellphone network. Vodafone, Nokia and Audi (yes, Audi), along with German space company PTScientists, plan to launch their ambitious 2019 mission from Cape Canaveral via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The project isn't meant to help extraterrestrials phone home or stream "X-Files" episodes. Instead, the system will help two Audi quattro lunar rovers communicate with a base station that weighs just over 2 pounds (0.9 kilograms) and is called, aptly, the Ultra Compact Network. If the Autonomous Landing and Navigation Module (ALINA) touches down without malfunction, the network will be up and running shortly after the craft lands on the moon, zipping 4G (1800 megahertz) signals in the local area.

Kidding aside, the mission has its roots in the Google Lunar X Prize, a $30 million challenge put forth by the tech giant to spark a successful moon landing by someone, anyone, who had the know-how and cash to propel such a project. No team managed to meet the prize deadline of March 31, 2018, but PTScientists — which had already invested a lot of time and money in their X Prize pursuits — decided to push forward even without the $30 million carrot dangling in front of them.

The Audi rovers won't just be going for leisurely Sunday drives. Their ultimate aim is to investigate the site of NASA's Apollo 17 mission, the last manned moon landing, which occurred in December 1972 and saw Commander Eugene Cernan and lunar pilot Harrison Schmitt exploring the Taurus-Littrow valley. If successful, researchers will have a blast exploring powerful (but dusty) history, and moon-landing deniers will have a much harder time promulgating their flat-Earth beliefs.

距離人類登月半個(gè)世紀(jì)后，月球終于要獲得它的第一個(gè)通信系統(tǒng)了。你沒聽錯(cuò)，很快月球就上會(huì)建立第一個(gè)4G網(wǎng)絡(luò)。沃達(dá)豐、諾基亞、奧迪以及德國(guó)空間公司PTScientists正在合作，想要通過太空探索技術(shù)公司(Space X)的獵鷹9號(hào)火箭來(lái)完成他們雄心勃勃的2019年計(jì)劃。

這個(gè)項(xiàng)目并不是為了幫助外星人通話或者播放“X檔案”。恰恰相反，該系統(tǒng)將幫助兩輛奧迪Quattro月球探測(cè)車與一個(gè)基站溝通，該基站重0.9公斤，被稱為超小型網(wǎng)絡(luò)。如果自動(dòng)著陸和導(dǎo)航模塊在沒有故障的情況下降落了，該設(shè)備就將在登陸月球不久后啟動(dòng)并運(yùn)行，這樣月球就擁有了一個(gè)小型的4G網(wǎng)絡(luò)。通過搭建好的高速節(jié)能的4G網(wǎng)絡(luò)，Quattro月球探測(cè)車將向基站傳送大量科學(xué)數(shù)據(jù)、高分辨率的圖片和視頻。然后，基站會(huì)將這些內(nèi)容傳回地球。

這不是在開玩笑，這一計(jì)劃起源于谷歌公司的月球X獎(jiǎng)。月球X獎(jiǎng)是由谷歌發(fā)起的一個(gè)挑戰(zhàn)：只要你擁有進(jìn)行登月項(xiàng)目的專業(yè)技術(shù)和資金，你就可以參加，最終的獎(jiǎng)金是3000萬(wàn)美元。目前還沒有哪只隊(duì)伍能在2018年3月31日的最后期限前完成任務(wù)，但是德國(guó)空間公司PTScientists已經(jīng)在他們的參賽項(xiàng)目里投入了大量的時(shí)間和金錢。因此，即使沒有那3000萬(wàn)美元的獎(jiǎng)金，他們也決定繼續(xù)前進(jìn)。

奧迪的這兩輛Quattro月球探測(cè)車并不只是去閑逛兩圈，它們的最終目標(biāo)是調(diào)查阿波羅17號(hào)執(zhí)行任務(wù)的地點(diǎn)。阿波羅17號(hào)在1972年12月被發(fā)射，是美國(guó)宇航局的最后一次載人登月。如果該項(xiàng)目成功了，研究人員將會(huì)對(duì)這一偉大但被塵封的探索歷史了解更多，而且那些登月否定者也將更難以推廣他們的信仰。