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NASA Awards Contract to Develop 5G Communications for Moon

Page: NASA contract release C26-014 by Gerelle Q. Dodson, 30 September 2026. https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-awards-contract-to-develop-5g-communications-for-moon/. Fetched 2026-10-02T04:02:35Z. File: sources/moon-base/nasa-gov-news-release-nasa-awards-contract-to-develop-5g-communications-for-moon.md.

Summary. Modulate Space Corporation will develop "key elements of a 5G communications system for use on the lunar surface with built-in Wi-Fi 6", for Glenn Research Center, "designed to support future Moon Base surface operations". It runs to a flight demonstration on the lunar surface by the end of 2028. Its subject is the surface networks of tech gap #0103 (the pairing is the wiki's; see #0103).

Key points

  • Contract: "The 5G System and Lunar Surface Communications Evaluation and Radio Propagation Measurements contract is a firm-fixed-price contract with a value of approximately $38 million."
  • Two work areas, "together" a "scalable, standards-based communications capability":
    • "5G Network-in-a-Box Development and Lab Demonstration", from "Thursday, Oct. 1, through Jan. 31, 2028";
    • "Lunar 5G and Wi-Fi Integrated Surface Network and Flight Demonstration on the Lunar Surface", from "Monday, Nov. 30, through Dec. 31, 2028". The start years aren't printed; the weekdays fit 2026 (the wiki's reading).
  • What NASA gets: "technology development of hardware, firmware, and software needed to advance the integrated lunar communications system", and "insight into the system architecture and operational performance while providing the flexibility needed to evolve the technology".

What it doesn't say

Which lander or mission carries the flight demonstration; a site; a Moon Base phase; SCaN, LunaNet or any ADD gap; how far apart the nodes will be or what data rate is sought.

#0103 Surface-to-Surface Communications · SCaN Networks · C&PNT Systems · Lander communications challenge