UPSC Articles
Crew module of NASA’s Gateway Lunar Orbiting Outpost finalised
Part of: GS-Prelims and GS-III – Space
In News:
- NASA recently finalised the contract for the initial crew module of the agency’s Gateway lunar orbiting outpost.
- NASA has issued this contract to design the habitation and logistics (HALO) support for the Gateway.
Important value additions
Gateway lunar orbiting outpost
- It is a part of NASA’s Artemis program.
- The Gateway is a small spaceship that will orbit the Moon.
- It is meant for astronaut missions to the Moon and for expeditions to Mars.
- It will act as a temporary office for astronauts, distanced at about 250,000 miles from Earth.
- It will have living quarters, laboratories for science and research and docking ports for visiting spacecraft.
- Astronauts will use the Gateway at least once per year and not stay around the year like they do on the International Space Station (ISS).
- Compared to the ISS, the Gateway is much smaller,
- NASA has targeted the completion of the Gateway for 2026, while work on the spaceship is already underway.
- By 2022, NASA plans to ready the power and propulsion for the spaceship, which will be launched on a partner-provided commercial rocket.
Artemis program
- It is an on-going government-funded crewed spaceflight program of USA.
- It has the goal of landing the first woman and the next man on the Moon, specifically at the lunar South Pole region by 2024.
- The program is carried out by:
- NASA (
- U.S. commercial spaceflight companies contracted by NASA
- European Space Agency (ESA)
- Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
- Canadian Space Agency (CSA)
- Australian Space Agency (ASA).
- It is expected to advance Artemis as the next step towards the long-term goal of establishing a sustainable presence on the Moon, laying the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy, and eventually sending humans to Mars.
