SYDNEY, Australia \u2014 Solstar Space announced a NASA contract Sept. 29 to develop commercial Wi-Fi access points for the space agency\u2019s Artemis and Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programs.<\/p>\n
Under the $150,000 Small Business Innovation Research award, Solstar will spend six months creating preliminary designs for Wi-Fi access points for human landing systems, lunar rovers, instruments, payloads, sensors, spacesuits and tablet computers.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything needs to be Wi-Fi enabled,\u201d Brian Barnett, Solstar founder and CEO, told\u00a0SpaceNews. \u201cThis is a great opportunity for us to collaborate with NASA Johnson Space Center, the group that pioneered Wi-Fi inside and outside the International Space Station.\u201d<\/p>\n
With NASA\u2019s support, Solstar intends to develop commercial products appropriate for CLPS missions, which last one lunar day (about 14 days on Earth). \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBased upon the preliminary designs, we want to build commercial products to fly on a CLPS mission as soon as possible,\u201d Barnett said. <\/p>\n
At the same time, Solstar will continue to develop radiation-hardened Wi-Fi access points for longer-duration Artemis missions. Lunar communications systems will have to withstand the moon\u2019s thermal extremes and meet stringent size, weight and power constraints, Barnett said.<\/p>\n
NASA technical requirements for Artemis missions call for Wi-Fi-enabled systems and subsystems for the Human Landing System, CLPS payloads, Lunar Terrain Vehicle services, and the Lunar Gateway\u2019s Habitation and Logistics Outpost and airlock module. <\/p>\n
\u201cSolstar\u2019s proposed Lunar Wi-Fi Access Point (LWIFI-AP) is designed to meet NASA\u2019s demand for a space-rated, multi-mode, multi-protocol, and multi-band wireless access points capable of operating in extreme lunar conditions,\u201d according to the news release. \u201cThis system will enable robust communications between astronauts, robotic systems, lunar vehicles, lunar surface-based and cislunar orbital assets. Solstar\u2019s LWIFI-AP will be engineered to support real-time mission data flow, navigation, and scientific collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n