The Artemis program's Lunar Gateway crossed off a significant accomplishment this month; on April 1st, but word apparently just got released today. The milestone is that part of the lunar space station called the Gateway was shipped from its manufacturing at Thales Alenia Space in Italy to the US Counterpart, Northrop Grumman, in Gilbert, Arizona.
The part of the Lunar Gateway that shipped here is called the Habitation and Logistics Outpost, referred to as the HALO module. As the name implies, this is the living and working space for astronauts before going to the lunar surface or before returning to Earth.
NASA calls the HALO module a "core component" of Gateway. Aside from providing astronaut living quarters, the module will offer a range of utilities like command and control, power distribution, communications and tracking. It will also enable research, supporting internal and external science payloads.
The Lunar Gateway is controversial for several reasons. It's essentially a space station in lunar orbit rather than Earth orbit, and nothing like it has ever been a part of operational missions. As people familiar with the Apollo landings will immediately recognize, there was nothing like this in the Apollo program. They flew to the moon, orbited it, landed the (disposable) landing module. On the way back to Earth, they left part of the lunar module on the moon, flew the other half to lunar orbit, and then threw away that half before leaving for Earth. Gateway seems to be a work around for inadequacies in the design of the SLS and became obsolete when the Starship versions for landing on the moon were conceived of and settled on. Let me grab a few words from an older post (November 2022) on Lunar Gateway.
While the Artemis III landing will be about as barebones as possible, the Artemis IV Starship will be upgraded with the ability to transport more NASA astronauts (four instead of just two) and more cargo to the lunar surface. It’s not entirely clear, but NASA reportedly wants to land just ~180 kilograms (~400 lb) of cargo with the first crewed Starship, a vehicle likely capable of landing dozens of tons of cargo in addition to several astronauts. NASA hopes that future “sustainable” lander missions, a category that Starship’s Option B landing may or may not fall under, will transport up to one ton (~2200 lb) of cargo to and from the lunar surface.
Gateway’s HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) habitat module arrives in
Mesa, Arizona on April 1, 2025, after traveling from Italy, where Thales
Alenia Space fabricated its primary structure. (Image credit: NASA/Josh
Valcarcel)
After Northrop Grumman finishes its HALO work, the module will head to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. There, it will be integrated with Gateway's Power and Propulsion Element ahead of a planned 2027 launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
180 kgs to lunar surface? That's far less than carried by the LEM on Apollo missions.
ReplyDelete1 metric ton landed in the follow-up landing?
And, yes, as soon as SpaceX's HLS was selected, the sheer stupidity of 180kgs and 2 astronauts to the lunar surface was ridiculous.
Still say the best way to get there is launch HLS with cargo and crew, refuel in LEO, make it to the Moon and land, come back, meet up with another Starship to transfer crew and cargo and refuel and do another Moon trip.
The more the powers-that-be push the SLS system, Orion capsule and the Lunar Gateway, the more I get heartily peeved over feckless jobs programs and money wasters curiously named as SLS, Orion and Lunar Gateway.
Well, now that the NASA budget has been cut, the first to go should be SLS and Artemis. Because.
ReplyDeleteMaybe someone at Nasa was paying attention by not releasing the press release on April 1st / April Fools Day. But releasing it two weeks later makes me suspect they are just not paying attention at all. Thales delivered an empty aluminum can. Northrup will spend two years decorating the inside and that will make it a full space station capable of replacing ISS.
ReplyDeleteOn a whimsical side, Starship goes to the moon for the first time. Nasa wants to send two people. Starship can carry 40 people easy. How many do you send? 40 is too many for the press or history to keep track of. Two people is idolatry. How many do you send?
Ideally, 8 to 10 plus a couple rovers and a star link constellation for better communications.
DeleteA prototype habitat to test weathering on the surface and some equipment to test suitability of regolith, rock, etc for future construction.
Jonathan
I agree.
Delete