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.

距离人类登月半个世纪后，月球终于要获得它的第一个通信系统了。你没听错，很快月球就上会建立第一个4G网络。沃达丰、诺基亚、奥迪以及德国空间公司PTScientists正在合作，想要通过太空探索技术公司(Space X)的猎鹰9号火箭来完成他们雄心勃勃的2019年计划。

这个项目并不是为了帮助外星人通话或者播放“X档案”。恰恰相反，该系统将帮助两辆奥迪Quattro月球探测车与一个基站沟通，该基站重0.9公斤，被称为超小型网络。如果自动着陆和导航模块在没有故障的情况下降落了，该设备就将在登陆月球不久后启动并运行，这样月球就拥有了一个小型的4G网络。通过搭建好的高速节能的4G网络，Quattro月球探测车将向基站传送大量科学数据、高分辨率的图片和视频。然后，基站会将这些内容传回地球。

这不是在开玩笑，这一计划起源于谷歌公司的月球X奖。月球X奖是由谷歌发起的一个挑战：只要你拥有进行登月项目的专业技术和资金，你就可以参加，最终的奖金是3000万美元。目前还没有哪只队伍能在2018年3月31日的最后期限前完成任务，但是德国空间公司PTScientists已经在他们的参赛项目里投入了大量的时间和金钱。因此，即使没有那3000万美元的奖金，他们也决定继续前进。

奥迪的这两辆Quattro月球探测车并不只是去闲逛两圈，它们的最终目标是调查阿波罗17号执行任务的地点。阿波罗17号在1972年12月被发射，是美国宇航局的最后一次载人登月。如果该项目成功了，研究人员将会对这一伟大但被尘封的探索历史了解更多，而且那些登月否定者也将更难以推广他们的信仰。