As people expand into space, reliable communication becomes a key part of the infrastructure.
Earth has an ever-improving communication network both on the ground and now in space with satellite clusters like SpaceX’s Starlink.
What about the Moon?
Being so close to Earth (compared to other celestial bodies), provides an opportunity for reliable, high-quality connections on the Moon and back to Earth.
As Moon infrastructure increases and colonies begin to grow, it will become even more critical to have a capable and reliable Moon wide system.
Moonlink is the lunar version of Earth’s Starlink. It uses the same satellites in orbit as a lunar mesh network.
Being smaller than Earth, a minimum of 12 Starlink satellites are all that’s needed to create a stable, basic network on the Moon. However, around 50 satellites would be better.
Thus, it would require only one Starship deployment flight to establish a stable, reliable communications network around the Moon.
This makes it a cheap network that is also achievable in the near future.
It’s not merely a future need. Early lunar hardware is being designed to utilize 4G/LTE communications, as such it will become critical sooner rather than later.
An example of this is the proposed lunar spacesuits for NASA’s Artemis III mission, which are being developed by Axiom Space. These spacesuits are known as the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU).
For communications, the AxEMU spacesuits are equipped with 4G/LTE communications systems, giving greater communication capabilities on lunar missions.
Having Moonlink in place prior to extended missions, ensures not only safety but also that those building equipment for lunar missions know they have a known, reliable communication technology they can build in.
As such it would be worth looking at deploying SpaceX Starlink satellites around the Moon to establish a Moonlink network to enable these communications early on.
This could be a parallel mission using a Starlink-dispensing Starship refueled in LEO and sent on a loop around the Moon to deploy the satellites before returning.
It is likely that the Starship’s Starlink deployment version will be ready in 2025 or early 2026. This means a Moonlink mission could be sent even before the HLS mission. It would ensure essential communication systems are in place before people arrive.
