Mobile on moon: Indian behind project to set up first 4G lunar network for NASA

Batra says the lunar network may be a reality during this year itself. ‘We’re using standard operating technology... In effect, we are not building a new technology to create links to the Moon,’ he says

- Pankaj Doval

New Delhi: If records are anything to go by, this one is surely special as it culminates in setting up of the first 4G network on the moon, and establishing the first extra-terrestrial cellular mobility that could one day be extended further to connect future robotic and human missions in space, and even to Mars.

And, it’s an Indian — born in New Delhi to a middle-class business family — who is leading the efforts to achieve the feat that will provide mobile connectivity to NASA’s ambitious Artemis moon-landing programme.

Nishant Batra, based in Espoo (Finland), is the global head of strategy and technology at the Euro 22-billion Nokia, with responsibility for also leading the technology architecture and research at Bell Labs, which has to its credit nine Nobel Prize wins and five Turing awards.