From NASA Moon door The space station design process is starting to take shape: the agency has announced five new prototypes that it plans to test in the field.
These habitats are not really designed for use on the Moon, but they are more the responsibility of NASA to learn more about the interfaces, requirements and design standards of a future Habitat module for US astronauts, a said the agency. Gateway would provide a base in orbit around the moon from which astronauts could descend to the lunar surface or go further into space.
"These tests have been formulated so that we can compare side-by-side very different and innovative concepts from the American industry," said Marshall Smith, who directs human exploration programs on the Moon. at NASA headquarters in Washington. said in a statement from NASA. "Although we do not dare to design specifically when we buy American housing, we will enter the buying phase with much less risk thanks to the knowledge gained from these tests."
This news comes just weeks after NASA announced that, following a directive from the Trump administration, it would target terrestrial astronauts on the moon of 2024 here. NASA anticipates that the bridge will be ready in the 2020s for human habitation.
Scroll through the concepts of the five companies below, plus a concept study of the company NanoRacks:
Trials at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida: Lockheed has constructed a Versatile Logistics Module (MPLM) originally designed for the International Space Station. This MPLM will support NASA Orion Spacecraft (which will transport astronauts to and from the gateway) and includes a space that can be modified for different types of missions.
Trials at the Johnson Space Center of NASA in Texas: Northrop uses a design that will take advantage of its Cygnus Spaceship, which sends a cargo to the International Space Station. This particular module can be modified in different ways, and its goal is to "create a comfortable and efficient living environment" for astronauts, NASA officials said.
Trials at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama: Boeing is accustomed to building space stations because it is the main contractor for the International Space Station and has developed many elements on the complex in orbit. The company will use this "legacy" knowledge in its own module, which includes some areas that can be isolated for payloads to be operated in different cabin moods. Boeing also plans to optimize the available volume, although the statement does not specify how.
Trials at the Johnson Space Center of NASA in Texas: Sierra Nevada is responsible for Dream Catcher who will eventually participate in the cargo races of the space station. This space station module that he is creating is a Large Inflatable Fabric Environment (LIFE) habitat that is supposed to fold and then inflate in space. Inflatable structures tend to have more living space than traditional rigid structures because the rigid type is limited by the size of the rocket used to launch it. LIFE will have a large living space simulated on three floors.
Trials at Bigelow Aerospace, Nevada: Bigelow will present an expandable module called prototype B330. The module offers a living area of 330 cubic meters (about 11,600 cubic feet). Bigelow has previously sent a Expandable activity module Bigelow (BEAM) to the space station, where she completed a two-year test mission. His time on the station has been extended so that astronauts can use it as a storage unit.
Conceptual study: To house the astronauts, NanoRacks plans to use a tank of rocket propellant under pressure and used. The fuel will be emptied by exposing the tank to the space and then the module will be reused for human habitation. NanoRacks has already completed a feasibility study and is currently working on large-scale prototypes that would partly use robotics to convert the tank into a living space for astronauts. Currently, NanoRacks provides commercial space on the space station to companies, organizations or individuals, to enable them to conduct experiments or deploy payloads.
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