Nokia selected by NASA to build cellular network on the moon • Hacker News Board

Re: Nokia selected by NASA to build cellular network on the moon

#101

Post by wh313 » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 4:35 PM UTC

Seb-C wrote: post #97

Is anyone aware of a date/time representation system that would work universally (including extraterrestrial places)? I just have been curious about this question for long. Sure, we could keep an earth referential on a moon base, but then what about Mars? As a software developer it is already difficult to always get dates/times properly with timezones, now imagine places which does not have 24 hours per day or the sa…

There's Barycentric Dynamical Time, which takes time dilation into account: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barycentric_Dynamical_Time

NASA has actually thought through this problem and created SPICE, which lets you convert between different time systems, some relativistic and some not, as well as doing conversions between various reference frames: https://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/naif/index.html

Re: Nokia selected by NASA to build cellular network on the moon

#102

Post by Roritharr » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 4:48 PM UTC

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #65

There’s lots of comments about roaming charges and dialling codes here but despite using 4G/LTE I’m assuming this is a closed network - you won’t be able to call an astronaut without going through NASA.

Initially.

Re: Nokia selected by NASA to build cellular network on the moon

#103

Post by eternalban » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 4:48 PM UTC

Microsoft and allies seem to be winning "hearts and minds" in the DoD and related sectors of US.

https://www.geekwire.com/2019/microsoft-nokia-reunite-new-al...

Re: Nokia selected by NASA to build cellular network on the moon

#104

Post by cure » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 4:49 PM UTC

VonGuard wrote: post #46

This reminds me of when the Bush administration gave the contract for building a cell network in Iraq to Worldcom. And Worldcom went bankrupt. Clearly, they were not in the right position to fullfill the contract, but they were in the right position to bribe their way into the contract.

This isn't the part of Nokia you're thinking of, which made handsets. That business was sold to Microsoft in a very dubious deal, and Microsoft promptly ran it into the ground.

Nokia is one of the three main players in the cell phone infrastructure market. The others are Ericsson and Huawei. There are a couple of smaller players too like Samsung and ZTE.

Nokia seems like a very reasonable choice for this contract. The Chinese players were presumably out for (mostly) political reasons. So this was probably a 2 way race with Ericsson.

edited: fix typo.

Re: Nokia selected by NASA to build cellular network on the moon

#105

Post by jjuuaann » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 4:50 PM UTC

“When deep space exploration ramps up, it’ll be the corporations that name everything. IBM stellar sphere, Microsoft galaxy, planet Starbucks.”

Re: Nokia selected by NASA to build cellular network on the moon

#106

Post by 8note » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 4:51 PM UTC

chrisjc wrote: post #68

dr_orpheus wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's so strange. I don't see why they couldn't just pick a color that matched the other trees around it even slightly. The out-of-place ones I see that are among other trees are usually out-of-place because they are just so much taller, not a completely different color.

Well it's going to look more obvious at different times of the year. Especially in the fall and winter.

In winter it'll be covered in snow? Should blend in better then

Re: Nokia selected by NASA to build cellular network on the moon

#107

Post by hydrogenbonds » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 4:52 PM UTC

I see nice things like this and I wonder if they could’ve spent that money on actually making better service and proving more coverage in hard to reach areas.

Re: Nokia selected by NASA to build cellular network on the moon

#108

Post by dhagz » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 5:01 PM UTC

hydrogenbonds wrote: post #107

I see nice things like this and I wonder if they could’ve spent that money on actually making better service and proving more coverage in hard to reach areas.

Not to be facetious or anything, but I'd argue the moon is a hard-to-reach area with a distinct lack of coverage.

Now, I don't think it's going to impact a significant number of end-users, so probably not great from that perspective.

Re: Nokia selected by NASA to build cellular network on the moon

#109

Post by hnarn » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 5:11 PM UTC

DanBC wrote: post #37

hnarn wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost all of them are taken but 999 is still free!

999 is the emergency number in the UK and a few other places. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/999_(emergency_telephone_numbe...

That's far from ideal, but country codes in phone numbers are also always prefixed, so a phone number in country code 999 would never start with that number, it would either be +999 [something] on a smartphone for example, or the old school equivalent 00 999 [something].

Re: Nokia selected by NASA to build cellular network on the moon

#110

Post by iso1631 » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 5:14 PM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #41

toast0 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like it, but +66 is Thailand already. It would probably get one of the available +87x or +88x codes. If they aren't just going to issue numbers from the home country.

I like it, but +66 is Thailand already. Maybe Thailand could be reassigned. Like when Mexico dropped out of +1 to become +52. Or maybe instead of +, we dial & to get off-planet.

You're suggesting an entire country of millions of people change their phone numbers because America decides that it wants to create a new international area code which happens to match the word "moon" in English?