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While NASA may struggle to return to the moon by 2024, the U.S. space agency is doing what it can to possibly explore the lunar surface, announcing an official partnership with Japan for the lunar gateway.
NASA and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) have officially announced the deal that will see JAXA contribute to the gateway, providing technical expertise, life support and environmental control system, batteries, thermal control components and imaging.
“We are honored to announce this latest agreement with Japan to support long-term human exploration on and around the Moon as part of the Artemis program,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement. “Strengthening our international partnerships and our commitments to Artemis puts humanity on a solid course to achieve our common goals of sustainable lunar exploration by the end of this decade.”
Illustration of Gateway in lunar orbit with contributions from international partners. (NASA)
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A memorandum of understanding was signed between NASA and Japan at the end of 2020, Japan’s foreign ministry said.
In addition, the new agreement will allow Japanese astronauts access to the gateway, which NASA said “will be determined following further discussions and documented in a future arrangement.”
“Leveraging the capabilities that international partners bring to Gateway will be essential to enable access to the lunar surface,” added Kathy Lueders, associate administrator of the Human Exploration Missions and Operations Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “We are delighted to move forward in these innovative efforts with Japan and our other partners.”
The bridge, which is about one-sixth the size of the International Space Station, will serve as a “meeting point” for astronauts heading to lunar orbit aboard the Orion spacecraft before heading to orbit low lunar and finally the surface. It will be used for both robotic and human expeditions to the Moon and Mars.
“The capabilities provided by Japan are critical to enabling the interior environment of the bridge to enable our crews to live and work longer,” Dan Hartman, Gateway Program Manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, explained to Houston. “With Japan’s life support systems, longer duration missions for Artemis crews can be accomplished with reduced demands for logistics replenishment.”
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Japan becomes the third international partner to commit to the gateway. In October 2020, NASA and the European Space Agency signed a Gateway Cooperation Agreement. A month later, the United States and Canada also signed an agreement to collaborate on the Lunar Outpost.
The bridge will be used as a base for NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program. In 2019, NASA unveiled its vision for the Artemis lunar lander that will bring American astronauts back to the lunar surface.
The Artemis program, the successor to the Apollo program, is notable for a number of reasons, including its goals to send the first woman to land on the lunar surface and to establish a lasting human presence on Earth’s natural satellite. .
To date, only 12 people, all of them Americans, have landed on the moon. The last NASA astronaut to set foot on the moon was Apollo 17 mission commander Gene Cernan on December 14, 1972.
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