LoRa Breaks Distance Records by Bouncing a Message to the Moon and Back

LoRa, short for “long range,” has lived up to its name—literally. This wide‑area wireless modulation technique, derived from Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS) technology, encodes data on radio waves using chirp pulses. Since its debut in 2015, LoRa has enabled low‑power sensors and connected devices to transmit small bits of information across impressive distances.

Owned by semiconductor supplier Semtech Corp, LoRa’s resilience to interference and its extended range—outpacing Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth—make it ideal for the Internet of Things (IoT). Its low energy footprint has already secured adoption in agriculture, utilities, industry, and transportation sectors.

In a groundbreaking experiment, a team of European scientists bounced a LoRa message off the Moon in October, a first for this technology. The 730,360 km journey marks the furthest distance a LoRa packet has ever traveled, and it was the first time an off‑the‑shelf, small RF chip achieved a lunar bounce.

Co‑inventor Nicolas Sornin expressed his excitement: “I had never imagined a LoRa message would travel all the way to the Moon and back. The data quality is impressive.” CTO Thomas Telkamp of Lacuna Space added, “Seeing the echo from the Moon allowed us to calculate the lunar distance, matching NASA’s JPL Horizons predictions. We even visualized the Moon’s shape from the signal.”

The experiment, conducted with the Dwingeloo radio telescope in the Netherlands, demonstrates that low‑power transmissions can reach the lunar surface. Although the message—“PI9CAM,” the telescope’s call sign—served primarily as a proof of concept, it showcases LoRa’s potential for future deep‑space or extended‑range applications.

The full study will be presented at The Things Conference in Amsterdam, Jan. 27‑28, 2022.

LoRa in the IoT Landscape

Today’s LoRa‑powered devices include:

• Cattle monitoring sensors for temperature, health, and location
• Building security and elevator motor controls
• Asset tracking and fleet management units
• Smart parking meters and streetlights
• Municipal waste bin sensors
• Utility transformer temperature monitors
• Water and gas pipeline pressure and flow gauges

For deeper insight into how LoRa and the LoRaWAN protocol enable low‑power IoT over vast distances, visit the LoRa Alliance. The Alliance also maintains a list of LoRa‑certified devices for those seeking specific hardware solutions.