Photo: Thales Alenia Space
Humanity has had its share of space stations in close proximity to our planet, but it will soon have a similar habitat in orbit around the Moon. The structure is called Gateway, and preparations for getting it ready are all well underway.
Several space agencies and a number of contractors are hard at work on the project, but of interest to us today is something called the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO). It's one of the three major pressurized modules of the station, the one where the astronauts visiting the station and getting ready to descend to the surface of the Moon will use to live and work on science experiments.
The HALO is being put together over in Turin, Italy, by a company called Thales Alenia Space, a subcontractor of Northrop Grumman. Or, should we say, it's being tested over there, before being shipped to the U.S. for final outfitting.
The latest news on the HALO front is the module going through the static load test, a procedure meant to see if it can survive the forces it will be subjected to in deep space. Although the parties involved don't say anything about what exactly the test consisted of, we're told the HALO passed with flying colors.
The hardware is not out of the woods, yet, as more testing looms on the horizon, so we'll probably hear more about it in the not-so-distant future.
I said earlier the station comprises three main modules, and aside from the HALO that means the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and the Lunar International Habitat (Lunar I-HAB). They are accompanied in the structure by docking ports, airlocks, and a robotic arm made by Canadians.
The station is scheduled to begin assembly next year, when two of its modules, the PPE and HALO, will be launched together on board a Falcon Heavy rocket. It will take them no less than a year to get in position (a near-rectilinear halo orbit - NRHO).
The first Artemis mission to land on the Moon, III, will not use the Gateway, but the subsequent mission, IV, currently scheduled to take off in late 2028, will be the one that will power up the station. Launching together with the i-Hab module, the mission will see the astronauts boot everything up and getting it ready for normal operations.
Putting a space station in orbit around the Moon makes perfect sense, as it eliminates the need to launch Moon landers with every mission that departs Earth. Artemis astronauts will use the Orion spacecraft to travel to the Gateway, from where they'll take the SpaceX-designed Starship Human Landing System (and later on possibly a Blue Origin-designed one, the Blue Moon) down to the surface.
The HALO is being put together over in Turin, Italy, by a company called Thales Alenia Space, a subcontractor of Northrop Grumman. Or, should we say, it's being tested over there, before being shipped to the U.S. for final outfitting.
The latest news on the HALO front is the module going through the static load test, a procedure meant to see if it can survive the forces it will be subjected to in deep space. Although the parties involved don't say anything about what exactly the test consisted of, we're told the HALO passed with flying colors.
The hardware is not out of the woods, yet, as more testing looms on the horizon, so we'll probably hear more about it in the not-so-distant future.
I said earlier the station comprises three main modules, and aside from the HALO that means the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and the Lunar International Habitat (Lunar I-HAB). They are accompanied in the structure by docking ports, airlocks, and a robotic arm made by Canadians.
The station is scheduled to begin assembly next year, when two of its modules, the PPE and HALO, will be launched together on board a Falcon Heavy rocket. It will take them no less than a year to get in position (a near-rectilinear halo orbit - NRHO).
The first Artemis mission to land on the Moon, III, will not use the Gateway, but the subsequent mission, IV, currently scheduled to take off in late 2028, will be the one that will power up the station. Launching together with the i-Hab module, the mission will see the astronauts boot everything up and getting it ready for normal operations.
Putting a space station in orbit around the Moon makes perfect sense, as it eliminates the need to launch Moon landers with every mission that departs Earth. Artemis astronauts will use the Orion spacecraft to travel to the Gateway, from where they'll take the SpaceX-designed Starship Human Landing System (and later on possibly a Blue Origin-designed one, the Blue Moon) down to the surface.
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