Lunar mission “Artemis” - the production of the main element of the lunar orbital station “Lunar Gateway” has begun

NASA announced the selection of a contractor for the construction of the central block of the lunar orbital station “Lunar Gateway”, which will be equipped with the power module “The power and propulsion element” (a 50 kW ion electrostatic electro-propulsion engine, which is three times higher than existing analogues).

In continuation of this publication: A complete plan of the new NASA lunar program "Artemis" (Artemis).


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On May 23, 2019, NASA announced that they had begun implementing the lunar program "Artemis" and had taken the first step towards its implementation - the development and production of the main module of the lunar part of the project "Artemis" had begun, with the help of which:

• organization of power supply and maintenance of the Lunar Gateway station in the Moon’s orbit;
• communications and relay radio communications;
• mobile command center functions;
• functions of the service module for sending spacecraft to the lunar surface from the lunar orbital station “Lunar Gateway”.

This module will be created upon the request of NASA by a trusted contractor - Maxar Technologies.

The contract was concluded in the amount of $ 375 million - the base execution period of 12 months, with the possibility of extension for 26 months and beyond.

Design and production of the module should be completed within 12 months, then complex and step-by-step tests will begin both on Earth and in outer space.

After acceptance and commissioning, NASA is planning to launch the first full-fledged module of the Lunar Gateway orbital station to the lunar orbit in 2022.



Why did they choose such a power plant for the first distant orbital station - an electrostatic ion electrostatic engine with a power plant with a power of 50 kW?

“Solar electric motors are extremely efficient, which makes them ideal for use on an orbital airlock station,” said Mike Barrett, project manager for NASA power systems.

“This system requires much less fuel than traditional chemical systems, which will allow the Lunar Gateway orbital station to move more mass around the moon, including systems for disembarking to the surface, large residential modules and other components necessary for orbital work.”

Components of the Lunar Gateway orbital station:





The main function of the Lunar Gateway orbital station is to be the gateway to the Moon, and not to duplicate the tasks of the ISS. And the size of the “Lunar Gateway” is planned to be several times smaller than the ISS:



New slides from NASA about the lunar mission "Artemis":

The announcement of the contractor was held at the site Florida Tech:



The first phase of the mission "Artemis":



This phase will consist of three phases:



Artemis 1 - implementation in 2020: as part of this phase, an unmanned mission is planned, which involves circling around the moon.

Artemis 2 - implementation in 2022: as part of this phase, a manned mission will be launched, which will move around the moon.

Artemis-3 - launch in 2024: in the third stage, astronauts, including the first woman in the world, will be delivered to the lunar surface.

All three missions will be launched with the help of the world's largest launch vehicle Space Launch System (SLS), which is currently being developed by Boeing.

On board the launch vehicle will be the Orion (“Orion”) spacecraft, whose main contractor for the project is Lockheed Martin.

Currently undergoing stress tests of the Orion launch capsule:



















A more detailed flight plan of the first stage of Artemis 1:



But the ten-year plan, which I have already written earlier here .



The first elements of the lunar orbital station "Lunar Gateway":



At the first stage it is planned to put into orbit of the moon the power unit of the orbital station:







At the second stage, the remaining residential and scientific parts of the station will be arranged:









Solar electric propulsion (SEP) is an ionic electrostatic electric propulsion engine.



Link to the wiki .

Link with technology description on NASA website .















So, observing the phased and parallel development and production of components during the implementation of parts of the project, NASA plans to continue to continue the implementation of the Artemis program with contractors and on its own, and the guys are very determined:





And they are going to use thousands of tons of water at the south pole of the moon:







This is what awaits us on its surface in ten years:



And in orbit:



By the way, I was pleased to learn that William Shatner was invited to sound this video (starring James Tiberius Kirk, the captain of the starship Enterprise, in the Star Trek series (1966-1969)):