British Satellites May Provide Cell Phone Service on Moon

The UK’s space agency is reviewing the feasibility of a mission to put satellites in orbit around the moon, CNET reports. The MoonLITE study plans to send four “penetrator darts” containing geophysical instruments into the moon’s crust, monitoring their findings with four accompanying satellites. The resulting data will deliver information on moonquakes and the composition of the moon’s crust and core.

The satellite network will also extend cell phone service to colonists living on a lunar base, which NASA plans to build after 2020. The British National Space Center expects the feasibility study to last 9 months, and if no problems are encountered, could schedule the MoonLITE program for a 2014 launch.