Description: Communication in lunar environments requires substantial modifications to current state-of-the-art (SOTA) 5G technology. The difficult terrain and long-range requirements of lunar missions introduces critical gaps between the SOTA and requirements, including hardware, inability to communicate outside of base station range, and limited device-to-device connectivity. EpiSci’s solution is to provide NASA lunar missions with 3GPP-capable solutions on terrestrial SWaP-constrained platforms. This project will develop a 3GPP compliant 5G Sidelink (SL) SWaP prototype, which enables peer-to-peer communication when outside of a 5G base station’s range and enables direct handset-to-handset connectivity. EpiSci’s solution is three-fold: (1) It is a 5G SL solution (which provides relay, multi-hop, and MANET capabilities); (2) it uses a realistic 5G lunar-surface model (to meet performance evaluation needs); and (3) it is a novel interface design, similar to the Small Cell Forum’s 5G nFAPI interface, but modified to support 5G SL. While these three aspects provide an overall improved lunar network, EpiSci’s solution includes additional enhancements to data speeds, traffic-offloading, prioritization, and reliability. These enhancements are enabled by an AI-based network manager to optimize traffic flows and modify configuration parameters to provide significant performance improvements. Furthermore, our team has developed a real-time 5G emulation (5GEM) tool, resulting in an adaptable, plug-and-play tool which allows the user to realistically model adverse terrains and observe the performance prior to deployment. Our 5G Mission-Critical Sidelink for Autonomous and Interoperable Communications in Lunar Networks (5G MOSAIC) solution will offer a communication solution with higher reliability and lower latency, ultimately contributing to the success of NASA's lunar missions.

Benefits: 5G-MOSAIC technology directly applies to NASA’s visions to equip the lunar network with 5G capabilities while being able to maintain mission-critical and suit-to-suit and suit-to-rover communications. Our spectrum sensing and network management technologies will be application to future NASA missions such as the Artemis and Mars missions. These technologies will also be applicable to NASA’s unmanned missions for transferring data through its satellite and ground networks.

EpiSci’s commercial business model for 5G-MOSAIC is most analogous to Red Hat’s Linux. EpiSci is heavily investing in dual-use 5G technologies to become a software-defined networking company that intends to license or sell commercial-grade software development tools and the necessary training to build, run, and maintain a customizable 5G network based on the expanded capabilities such as sidelink.