Lunar Gateway Station : NASA
The UAE recently announced its participation in developing a module on NASA’s Lunar Gateway Station alongside the USA, Japan, Canada, and the European Union.
- Lunar Gateway Station is a primary component of NASA’s Artemis program.
- Artemis intends to establish a long-term base on the Moon (Artemis base), and the Lunar Gateway will serve as a multi-purpose outpost that orbits the Moon.
- The Gateway is a multinational project involving four of the International Space Station partner agencies: NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
- The Gateway Station is similar to the International Space Station currently in low Earth orbit, but the Gateway will orbit the Moon.
- Incidentally, the Gateway will be the first space station ever to exist outside of low Earth orbit, or LEO.
- From the Gateway, NASA and international partners can provide essential support for long-term human presence on the lunar surface, as well as launch additional missions for deep space exploration.
- Its flight path is a highly elliptical orbit, bringing it both relatively close to the Moon’s surface and also far away, making it easier to pick up astronauts and supplies from Earth, around a five-day trip.
- It will also offer a place to relay communications and act as a base for scientific research.
- The Gateway will weigh around 40 tonnes and consist of a service module, a communications module, a connecting module, an airlock for spacewalks, a place for the astronauts to live, and an operations station to command the Gateway’s robotic arm or rovers on the Moon.
- Astronauts will be able to occupy it for up to 90 days at a time, occasionally travelling to the lunar surface to conduct science and test new technologies.
