NASA has just formalized a contract worth 935 million dollars with Northrop Grumman to build and integrate the first habitation module of the future station lunar. Eventually, this "gateway" will serve as a hub between Earth and the Moon, promoting deep space exploration.
The United States plans to return humans to the Moon as early as 2024 under the Artemis program. To this end, the agency is developing a project for a station in lunar orbit named Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway. Astronauts will thus be able to stay between two missions on the lunar surface and conduct experiments there. Eventually, this gateway could also serve as a "relay point" for future manned missions to Mars.
As with many of its projects, NASA will be contracting out the construction of this station. It's now official:Northrop Grumman will build the Housing and Logistics Outpost (HALO) module. . The latter will serve as a habitat for visiting astronauts and as a command post. It will also offer docking ports for Orion spacecraft, cargo vehicles like SpaceX's Dragon XL, and future lunar landers.
The structure of the HALO module will be based on that of the Cygnus ship that Northrop Grumman uses to ferry cargo to the ISS. “By leveraging our active Cygnus production line, Northrop Grumman can uniquely deliver an affordable and reliable HALO module in the timeframe needed to support NASA's Artemis program “, said Steve Krein, vice president of civil and commercial satellites at Northrop Grumman.
This contract, worth 935 million dollars , covers the construction of the module as well as its integration with the power and propulsion element (PPE) of the station built by the company Maxar. Northrop Grumman will also be responsible for preparing its module for launch, as well as activating it once in space.
A few months ago, NASA also awarded a contract to the European Space Agency (ESA) for the construction of a second habitation module . Called "Esprit", the latter will also offer an observation dome similar to that available on board the International Space Station.
Timeline-wise, the Power and Propulsion Element and the HALO Outpost were scheduled to launch together in November 2023 aboard a Falcon Heavy from SpaceX rocket . On the other hand, it is still unclear whether the astronauts of the Artemis III mission will use this footbridge. It is indeed possible that the crew embarks directly in their lander from the Orion capsule, like the Apollo missions. On the other hand, it is planned that the crew of Artemis IV will dock at this station.
