NASA's grand plan for a lunar bridge must start small

The space station in NASA's lunar orbit will be thin and medium, especially at the beginning.

The deep space outpost, called a gateway, is a key part of NASA. Artemis Program, which plans to place astronauts near the South Pole of the Moon by 2024. For example, lunar landers, with or without a crew, will leave the bridge and the astronauts will regroup after their surface exits, announced NASA officials.

(These visitors will arrive at bridge aboard NASA's Orion crew capsule, which will be launched at the top of the agency's space launch system, or SLS. Orion and SLS are still in development; the duo is expected to fly together for the first time in June 2020, as part of an unprepared test mission called Artemis 1.)

Related: Can NASA really put astronauts on the Moon in 2024?

The space agency was targeting 2028 for the first lunar landing with crew after Apollo. But in March, Vice President Mike Pence announced a new aggressive schedule, pushing back the four-year-old moon.

To make sure that Gateway is ready for operation in 2024, NASA will start with a reduced program, nude version consisting solely of Power and propulsion element (EPP), scheduled for launch in 2022, and a miniature "user module". This first incarnation of Gateway will support missions of two people on the lunar surface, said NASA officials.

(Image: © NASA)

But the agency will strengthen Gateway's "Phase 2" for Artemis, which aims to establish a sustainable and sustainable human presence in the immediate vicinity of the Earth and around it. ("Phase 1" culminates with the landing of 2024). The success of Phase 2 will help NASA and its international partners prepare for the ultimate destination of manned flights – Mars.

"The smaller gateway is really meant to reach the moon's surface, so it has a minimum life support capability, a minimum of docking ports," said Bill Gerstenmaier, deputy administrator of NASA's human exploration and operations mission leadership at the agency's headquarters in Washington, DC, said during a teleconference with reporters Thursday (May 23).

"We really need a little more space, a little more volume," he added. "So we will probably want additional docking ports for other things, so we can have multiple lunar ports ashore."

More ports would also be useful if the Phase 2 gateway served as a space ship refueling station, which is a possibility, Gerstenmaier said. Additional space, both inside and outside the ministry, would also allow further research, he added.

A larger footbridge would provide a more comfortable accommodation for the crew. And the larger station would offer more opportunities to NASA's international partners, said Gerstenmaier. This last consideration is important for the agency, which has long insisted that the difficult and costly quest to put shoes on Mars would be a collaborative effort.

And this quest colors everything about Artemis and the doorway. For example, even in its final form, the outpost in orbit will definitely be busy compared to the $ 100 billion giant that currently surrounds the Earth, which presents more living space than a six bedroom house.

"Let's be clear: we are not building the International Space Station around the moon," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Thursday during the Florida Institute of Technology's webcast.

"This is not our goal here, we, as a nation, do not want to get bogged down, all our resources go to the moon," he added. "Our goal is ultimately to go to Mars and not get stuck on the surface of the moon."

Mike Wall's book on the search for extraterrestrial life, "Over there"(Grand Central Publishing, 2018, illustrated by Karl Tate), is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.