Take a look at the habitat proposed by Lockheed Martin for astronauts

NASA takes a basic approach to the human journey to Mars.

The agency plans to build in 2022 a space station in lunar orbit, called "Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway". The bridge will allow humans to live for up to three months in a row and will continue to support scientific research. search even when no one is on board.

The details of the bridge are still under development. Last year, NASA's Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships program (NextSTEP) awarded a total of $ 65 million to six different companies vying for NASA's main housing module. ;outpost. If all goes as planned, these companies will provide the agency with full prototypes of their modules that will be tested next year. [21 Most Marvelous Moon Missions of All Time]

Lockheed Martin is one of those competitors.

According to Kat Coderre, Head of Nexthep Home Systems Engineering at Lockheed, "The main goal of Gateway … is to push humans a little further into space, so we can learn to do both sciences for a long time away from Earth, with the ultimate goal of engaging in a good Martian mission and having this first human mission on Mars. "

The Lockheed Martin team is working on assembling a Gateway Habitat module mockup in a company located near Denver, which Space.com has visited last summer. The model allows engineers to try new ideas before implementing them in the prototype currently under construction at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.

"We use an old shuttle material, the [Donatello] MPLM – the versatile logistics module – that was used to route supplies to and from the space station, "Coderre told Space.com.

Donatello was one of three major modules built to transfer cargo from the payload bay of a space shuttle to the international space station. Donatello has never arrived in space; the MPLM has been decommissioned and is now used as test equipment for the gateway habitat.

The use of Donatello in this way allows the Lockheed team to perform extremely accurate tests before entrusting the Gateway project to NASA, Coderre said. NASA will then begin to include humans in the test loop "to help reduce certain risks early in the design and to determine the key areas that NASA must really focus on for crew missions".

Currently, the KSC test article is expected to be completed in January 2019, said Coderre.

"It will happen very quickly," she said.

In recent months, engineers have defined the baseline for each equipment in Florida, she added. The first test hardware is already set up and the engineers are gaining speed. "We will be [moving] at a pretty fast pace from now on, "said Coderre.

Narrow living space

At approximately 15 feet wide and nearly 22 feet in length (4.6 meters by 6.7 meters), Lockheed's proposed habitat is about as large as a bus or recreational vehicle. Once the bridge was launched, astronauts would live in this confined space for 90 days. The Denver model, which mimicked the derelict Donatello, was essentially empty in June, but the final habitat will house life support systems, sleep stations, exercise machines, science labs and robotic workstations.

According to Danielle Hauf, a spokeswoman for Lockheed, the total volume under pressure of the habitat is about 64 cubic meters. This compares to 691 cubic feet (20 cubic meters) for the Orion capsule, NASA's spacecraft being built to transport humans in deep space. Orion will deliver crews to Gateway's habitat, where the ship will remain moored.

Once the additional systems are installed, the living space will be much smaller, although Hauf said that the final measurements would depend on the configuration of the spacecraft – what the team is still working on. In any case, the final living space will be far from the 13 696 cubic feet (388 cubic meters) of living space discovered aboard the International Space Station.

"We have always said that we need at least two habitats," said Coderre. "Our architecture has been updated to show a second time, and NASA is doing it now too." She went on to say that to perform the right amount of science and test new technologies in the deep space, it seemed clear that the habitat required "a little more space". [Cosmic Quiz: Do You Know the International Space Station?]

"And also for the mental health of the team," said Kerry Timmons, Head of Food, Avionics and NextSTEP Software Lockheed.

One habitat would be for NASA's national logistics, while the other could be an international contribution, Coderre said. The habitat would also have ports that can be used to visit vehicles other than Orion, such as logistics, human vehicles or robotic or human landing gear.

"It's really kind of a flexible platform where we can do a lot of different scientific research, as well as different human explorations," Coderre said.

Among these, the Orion capsule, which Coderre described as a key element. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for the spacecraft and Coderre and Timmons have both joined Orion's Gateway development team.

In addition to bringing astronauts to the habitat, Orion will also bring another important element: a toilet. As is now expected, the habitat plan does not require a washroom. Instead, astronauts would return to Orion to answer the call of nature.

The Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) of the bridge will form a bulkhead at the opposite end of Orion and will allow the outpost to be moved on various orbits around the moon, NASA officials said.

The EPP, which is developed separately from the Habitat module, will house communication and control and control functions, and will support solar electric propulsion (SEP) via a giant solar generator. The personal protective equipment will be launched first via commercial rockets, then will use SEP to move on its final orbit, while the space launch system under development of nNASA will carry the habitat and d & # 39; 39, other elements in the space.

"Each exploration mission will reveal a different element, integrate it into the bridge, perform the initial checks and then accomplish the other scientific objectives for that mission," Coderre said.

Whatever habitat NASA chooses ultimately, it will include a hatch that will allow astronauts to engage in extravehicular activities outside the module. Astronauts can take EVA to perform maintenance operations or scientific experiments. These excursions could also help test new space suit technologies, Coderre said.

"The idea is that we want to be able to test the advanced technology of space suits for space exits," Coderre said. "We know that this could be an integral part of any mission in the deep space." [Evolution of the Spacesuit in Pictures (Space Tech Gallery)]

A freight container in front of the EVA trap would allow for various logistical tasks, including replenishing the station and disposing of garbage. "You can not just open the window and throw away the garbage," Coderre laughs. She added that the way to store and dispose of waste and consumables is one of the main concerns, especially because of bacterial growth and odors.

The Colorado model is a less faithful version of the product. A more detailed prototype, using the Donatello MPLM, was unveiled in Florida in August 2018.

Part-time crew

Despite careful planning of how to manage the astronauts on board, the NASA Gateway will likely be deployed for only a few months, NASA officials said. The rest of the time, it will be empty. But that does not mean that nothing will happen on board the station.

"We are studying other concepts of different operations in which we can do other unassembled activities, different scientific experiments, and other experiments that can actually be done without humans," Coderre said.

These options include remote telerobotics that can be directed from the ground. Another possibility is the addition of a robot that could move on the module on a rail. When visiting Space.com in June, a robotic arm was set up to select fake strawberries and pick up objects on a platter via a remote console using virtual reality.

Virtual and augmented reality played an important role in the development of Lockheed's habitat. By superimposing real hardware on simulations, engineers were able to visualize the capsule more easily, saving time and quickly detecting potential problems.

"We are looking at these concepts where we can do different virtual and / or separate unmanned activities," Coderre said.

Lockheed is also building a "deep space avionics integration laboratory" in Houston to demonstrate command and control between Orion and the bridge. Company representatives said the lab will help reduce the risks associated with critical data communications between gateway elements and provide an environment in which astronauts can train for different mission scenarios.

Lockheed competes with Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp., Northrop Grumman, NanoRacks and Bigelow Aerospace to develop a Gateway habitat. NASA will review the plans and award a contract next year. This agency aims to launch the EPP in 2022 and prepare the bridge for astronauts by the mid-2020s.

Follow Nola Taylor Redd at @NolaTRedd, Facebook or Google+. Follow us on @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally posted on Space.com.