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Calling the Moon: Startup to Put Cellphone Tower on the Moon
Space.com ^ | August 10, 2017 03:25pm ET | Tereza Pultarova

Posted on 08/11/2017 9:10:59 AM PDT by BenLurkin

German company Part Time Scientists, which originally competed for the Google Lunar X Prize race to the moon, plans to send a lander with a rover in late 2018 to visit the landing site of Apollo 17. (Launched in 1972, this was NASA's final Apollo mission to the moon.) Instead of using a complex dedicated telecommunication system to relay data from the rover to the Earth, the company will rely on LTE technology — the same system used on Earth for mobile phone communications.

"We are cooperating with Vodafone in order to provide LTE base stations on the moon," Karsten Becker, who heads embedded electronics development and integration for the startup, told Space.com.

"What we are aiming to do is to provide commercial service to bring goods to the moon and also to provide services on the surface of the moon," Becker added.

Part Time Scientists has a launch contract for late 2018 with Space X as a secondary payload on the Falcon 9 rocket. Becker said the company believes it will be the first private entity to reach the surface of the moon, suggesting that none of the Google Lunar X Prize participants are likely to meet the December 2017 deadline for the competition. (Part Time Scientists itself withdrew from the Google Lunar X Prize earlier this year due to the time constraints of the competition.)

The Falcon 9 will carry the team's spacecraft, Alina, to the geostationary transfer orbit, a highly elliptical Earth orbit whose highest point is 26,000 miles (42,000 kilometers). From there, Alina will continue on its own to the moon.

"We will soft-land on the moon and disembark our two rovers, the Audi Lunar Quatro rovers, with which we are going to drive up to Apollo 17," Becker said.

(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: cellphone; moon; nasa; spacex; tower
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1 posted on 08/11/2017 9:10:59 AM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

2 posted on 08/11/2017 9:16:35 AM PDT by Red Badger (Road Rage lasts 5 minutes. Road Rash lasts 5 months!.....................)
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To: BenLurkin
Audi Lunar Quatro rovers

Hope their accelerator pedals don't get stuck...............

3 posted on 08/11/2017 9:18:14 AM PDT by Red Badger (Road Rage lasts 5 minutes. Road Rash lasts 5 months!.....................)
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To: BenLurkin

Why bother with the 2 second time lag?


4 posted on 08/11/2017 9:20:51 AM PDT by Morpheus2009
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To: Red Badger
LTE beats hell out of...


5 posted on 08/11/2017 9:28:04 AM PDT by bigbob (People say believe half of what you see son and none of what you hear - M. Gaye)
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To: Red Badger

If Gene Hunt is driving, it might as well stay floored.


6 posted on 08/11/2017 9:30:27 AM PDT by wally_bert (I didn't get where I am today by selling ice cream tasting of bookends, pumice stone & West Germany)
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To: BenLurkin

Can you hear me now?


7 posted on 08/11/2017 9:30:37 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: BenLurkin

Cell coverage during a solar eclipse will be epic!

Dial all the planets!!!


8 posted on 08/11/2017 9:30:42 AM PDT by VanDeKoik (.)
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To: BenLurkin

My first thought was why would they do the LAST landing site, and then realized that Schmitt and Evans are likelier younger and cheaper to engage for the promotions than Aldrin and the earlier astronauts.


9 posted on 08/11/2017 9:31:22 AM PDT by treetopsandroofs (Had FDR been GOP, there would have been no World Wars, just "The Great War" and "Roosevelt's Wars".)
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To: Red Badger

It’s from Airplane II.

I’m using a Droid and guess the link is right.

https://youtu.be/RBgeMohcXOk


10 posted on 08/11/2017 9:33:40 AM PDT by wally_bert (I didn't get where I am today by selling ice cream tasting of bookends, pumice stone & West Germany)
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To: wally_bert

Pretty soon, people won’t know what a ‘payphone’ is.
Phone booths are already extinct...............


11 posted on 08/11/2017 9:36:31 AM PDT by Red Badger (Road Rage lasts 5 minutes. Road Rash lasts 5 months!.....................)
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To: BenLurkin

Roaming charges apply?


12 posted on 08/11/2017 9:37:56 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Insanity, even when disguised by a nice-sounding name, is still insanity.)
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To: I want the USA back

Bigly


13 posted on 08/11/2017 9:39:52 AM PDT by BenLurkin ((The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.))
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To: Red Badger

I was watching an early Law & Order episode where Cragen stops to use a phone booth.

Funny how time flies.


14 posted on 08/11/2017 9:42:20 AM PDT by wally_bert (I didn't get where I am today by selling ice cream tasting of bookends, pumice stone & West Germany)
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To: BenLurkin

Wow, an even better way to lose money than flushing it down the toilet! Where do I sign up??

Look at the history of the Chunnel and the original investors.


15 posted on 08/11/2017 9:45:26 AM PDT by Professional
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To: wally_bert

They were selling old phone booths at the flea market here, recently. No phone, just booth.

Why anyone would buy one I don’t know.............


16 posted on 08/11/2017 9:45:38 AM PDT by Red Badger (Road Rage lasts 5 minutes. Road Rash lasts 5 months!.....................)
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To: Red Badger
"Would you believe...."


17 posted on 08/11/2017 9:49:49 AM PDT by BenLurkin ((The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.))
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To: Red Badger

I’d have one for nostalgia and as a prop.


18 posted on 08/11/2017 9:50:49 AM PDT by wally_bert (I didn't get where I am today by selling ice cream tasting of bookends, pumice stone & West Germany)
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To: Red Badger

Ask Superman, he would know...


19 posted on 08/11/2017 9:53:31 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (Hillary: Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass GO. Do not collect 2 billion dollars.)
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To: Fresh Wind

Never could understand the phone booth thing with Superman.

You can see all inside one................


20 posted on 08/11/2017 9:54:57 AM PDT by Red Badger (Road Rage lasts 5 minutes. Road Rash lasts 5 months!.....................)
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