NASA has selected Nokia (NOK) as a partner to advance “Tipping Point” technologies for the moon, deploying the first LTE/4G communications system in space and helping pave the way towards sustainable human presence on the lunar surface.
Shares in Nokia are trading up 2% in Monday’s pre-market trading.
Nokia Bell Labs’ pioneering innovations will be used to build and deploy the first ultra-compact, low-power, space-hardened, end-to-end LTE solution on the lunar surface in late 2022.
The network will self-configure upon deployment and establish the first LTE communications system on the moon, says Nokia.
It will provide critical communication capabilities for many different data transmission applications, including vital command and control functions, remote control of lunar rovers, real-time navigation and streaming of high definition video.
Marcus Weldon, Nokia Bell Labs President, said: “Reliable, resilient and high-capacity communications networks will be key to supporting sustainable human presence on the lunar surface… Nokia Bell Labs is once again planting the flag for pioneering innovation beyond the conventional limits.”
Nokia’s lunar network consists of an LTE Base Station with integrated Evolved Packet Core functionalities, LTE User Equipment, RF antennas and high-reliability operations and maintenance control software. The solution has been specially designed to withstand the harsh conditions of the launch and lunar landing, and to operate in the extreme conditions of space.
NASA plans to leverage these innovations for its Artemis program, which will establish sustainable operations on the Moon by the end of the decade in preparation for an expedition to Mars.
Shares in the Finnish telecom giant are up 8% on a year-to-date basis. With an average price target of $5.17, analysts forecast upside potential of 28% over the next year. Meanwhile the cautiously optimistic Moderate Buy analyst consensus breaks down into 4 Buys versus 3 Holds.
Northland analyst Tim Savageaux has a Buy rating on the stock with a Street high $6.50 price target (61% upside potential). He believes that Nokia’s recent entry into the Data Center switch market presents a sound opportunity and “serves as a timely reminder of the breadth and depth of NOK technology capabilities beyond wireless.”
“While we continue to find NOK shares compelling from a sum of parts perspective, given the positive impact of increased traffic demands across the company’s IP/Optical and Fixed Access segments, we also find the stand alone fundamental story compelling,” he summed up. (See Nokia stock analysis on TipRanks)
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