Phones and laptops on Earth connect through standard networks they share. On the Moon, each mission has usually brought its own radio system. A new NASA contract is meant to test whether that can change.
On September 30, 2026, NASA announced that it had chosen Modulate Space Corporation to develop key elements of a 5G communications system with built-in Wi-Fi 6. The work will be managed by NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The contract is firm-fixed-price and worth about $38 million. NASA says the network is intended to support Moon Base surface operations.
What NASA is actually buying
The contract's formal title is "5G System and Lunar Surface Communications Evaluation and Radio Propagation Measurements." The work is organized into two primary work areas, each with its own performance period.
- 5G Network-in-a-Box Development and Lab Demonstration: October 1 through January 31, 2028.
- Lunar 5G and Wi-Fi Integrated Surface Network and Flight Demonstration on the Lunar Surface: November 30 through December 31, 2028.
The first phase is a ground program lasting about 16 months. It should end with a demonstration of the system in a laboratory. The second phase is much shorter: a single month at the end of 2028, when the network is supposed to be tested on the Moon itself. There are about ten months between the end of the lab phase and the start of the flight window. NASA's release does not explain what happens in that gap. It also does not say how the hardware will get to the lunar surface.
Because the contract is firm-fixed-price, Modulate Space receives an agreed amount for the work and absorbs any cost overruns. The government does not cover them. For a contract that ends with operating hardware on another world, that puts real financial risk on the company.
A cell tower that fits in a box
The term "Network-in-a-Box" sums up the hardware. According to The Defense News, the platform combines 5G network equipment and software into a compact platform for testing before lunar deployment. On Earth, a cellular network needs radios, antennas, and core network software spread across towers and data centers. A lunar version has to fit all of that into something small enough to launch and land.
The Defense News also reports that the system uses standards-based 3GPP technology. 3GPP is the group that defines the specifications behind terrestrial mobile networks. The aim, according to the outlet, is a shared network that connects astronauts, rovers, landers, and surface instruments, rather than requiring each mission to carry its own custom radio system. These details about 3GPP and the shared-network goal come from the trade report, not from NASA's release. NASA's text says only that the system is 5G with Wi-Fi 6 built in.
Pairing 5G with Wi-Fi 6 makes sense even without that framing. Cellular technology handles wide-area coverage and many moving users. Wi-Fi is cheap, common, and good for short-range, high-throughput links. A surface network with both could, in principle, serve a distant rover and a sensor package next to the base on the same system.
The physics problem: radio waves on the Moon
The second half of the contract title, "Radio Propagation Measurements," may matter as much as the hardware. Propagation describes how radio signals travel, reflect, and fade between transmitter and receiver. On Earth, engineers draw on decades of measurements of how signals behave around buildings, hills, and trees. The lunar surface offers a very different environment for those measurements.
The Defense News reports that NASA will also study radio signal propagation on the lunar surface. The outlet says the lunar South Pole, where future operations are planned, has deep craters, steep mountains, and permanently shadowed areas that can affect wireless communications. Craters and ridges can block line of sight, which is why the terrain matters for coverage. As with the 3GPP details, the South Pole framing comes from the trade press. NASA's release does not name a landing site.
Whatever the location, any measured data on how 5G and Wi-Fi signals actually behave on the Moon would be useful in its own right. Engineers designing later networks could size coverage, transmitter power, and relay placement from measurements, not models alone.
Why It Matters
Communications infrastructure is not dramatic, but it decides whether a long-term surface presence works. If every lander, rover, and instrument needs its own radio and its own link back to Earth, each new mission adds integration cost and spectrum coordination. A shared surface network built on commercial standards would work more like ordinary terrestrial infrastructure: new equipment joins the network that is already there.
The contract is also tightly scoped. About $38 million covers a lab prototype, a flight demonstration, and radio propagation measurements. The fixed-price structure means the cost risk falls on Modulate Space. If the demonstration happens on schedule in December 2028, NASA will have real-world data on whether a standards-based wireless system can survive the trip and work on the Moon. If it slips, the distance between a lab prototype and a working lunar network will be clear.
The announcement is about a week old. It was reproduced by outlets including Satellite Evolution, and trade coverage followed on October 1. The next public milestone should be the lab demonstration, which is due by the end of January 2028.
