NASA’s Gateway lunar orbiting outpost

NASA has described the Gateway as key to the new era of lunar explorations both in the orbit and on the surface of the Moon. It has recently finalized the contract for the initial crew module of the agency’s Gateway lunar orbiting outpost. The contract, which is worth $187 million has been awarded to Orbital Science Corporation of Dulles, Virginia, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Space.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2020

Key-Points

One of the most unique features of the Gateway is that it can be moved to other orbits around the Moon to conduct more research.

The Gateway is being built by both international and commercial partners and will support exploration on and near the Moon and later to Mars as well.

NASA has issued this contract to design the habitation and logistics (HALO) support for the Gateway, which is a part of NASA’s Artemis program that aims to send the first woman and the next man to the Moon by 2024.

Essentially, the Gateway is a small spaceship that will orbit the Moon, meant for astronaut missions to the Moon and later, for expeditions to Mars.

It will act as a temporary office and living quarters for astronauts, distanced at about 250,000 miles from Earth. The spaceship will have living quarters, laboratories for science and research and docking ports for visiting spacecraft.

Further, 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, while the ISS is about the size of a six-bedroom house.

NASA has targetted 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.