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If someone mentions the space station, you probably think of the one that floats just above the Earth, or maybe future if (if?) We get to Mars.
But the new space The station could actually encircle a familiar heavenly star: the moon
According to a request from NASA's acquisition, which asks private companies to bid for the development of a new space station that would orbit the moon from 2022. 19659002] In theory, the orbital-bridge lunar platform could function as a starting point for moon-filled missions, including at its far-off side relatively unexplored. The station could also help prepare astronauts for Mars.
The orbital lunar platform "Gateway will give us a strategic presence in the lunar environs," said NASA interim administrator Robert Lightfoot in a press release in February.
It may seem simple enough to build a station on the moon, but there is a hiccup. The station would be too far from the moon to handle lunar missions alone. It would need the support of another small lunar orbital station and landers that NASA did not even propose to build. Meanwhile, the red planet is rapidly disappearing from NASA's planning, potentially orphaning the gateway station as far back as Mars goes.
For this reason, the experts warned that the bridge station might not be very useful for productive space exploration. "It's a mixed bag," said The Daily Beast's Matt Siegler, a former NASA scientist currently in Arizona, with the Planetary Science Institute.
But Siegler said the moon and Mars are not really up to the point of building another space station.
The point, in fact, is much more grounded than one might think: China.
This is because the Asian space power might be slipping in front of the United States in the race back to the lunar surface. "China seems on track to send astronauts to the moon in the late 2020s, if not sooner," Siegler said in a recent article: "The new US lunar station represents a kind of extraterrestrial advertising blow – an important space material that NASA could launch before the Chinese taikonauts walk on the moon. "The gateway is essentially a way to make a statement that the United States has a deeper spatial presence than other countries", said Siegler
Despite this logistical uncertainty, NASA is going from the front, soliciting industry proposals and has asked Congress 500 million to start paying them in 2019. NASA s & # Expects the station to cost $ 2.7 billion in total
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This is not a new idea. The space agency first proposed a lunar station in 2013 as a platform for the missions of interception and reorientation of asteroids on a collision course with the Earth. The defense project against the asteroid ended in 2017, but the idea of the station survived. " The Gateway is basically a way of declaring that the United States has a deeper spatial presence than other countries Matt Siegler, former NASA scientist at the Planetary Science Institute
Cheryl Warner, carries NASA's spokesman told The Daily Beast that the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway-in, a kind of miniature version of the International Space Station that orbits around the Earth, it could "be moved between orbits, "allowing him to" support lunar surface missions as well as further exploration into the solar system, including Mars. "
For NASA, a lunar mission is much more urgent. private companies hope to discover precious gases and minerals that can be extracted and sent back to Earth, or processed on the Moon for use by a Martian mission or a future lunar base.
And then there is the Dark side of the moon Each inhabited mission on the lunar surface explored the side closest to the moon. Due to the difficulty of obtaining signals beyond the moon's volume, only a few probes collected data from its far side. (The sunlight is actually striking from the other side, so it's not really dark.)
Beijing launched the most recent lunar probe in May. A new American station, reliably circulating around the entire moon, could make distant missions more routine for Americans. "If we are going to explore the unexplored, the lunar horizon is our obvious target," wrote David Kring, a researcher at the Lunar and Planetary Institute based in Texas, in a 2018 article endorsing the Gateway Station (PDF) . 19659002] But the Gateway station alone can not send American astronauts back to the lunar surface, either on the near or far side. This is because the station would travel along what NASA calls a "straight halo orbit" that would take it within 1000 miles of the moon.
It's too far from the moon for an effective exploration. To support human astronauts or a large number of drones, the lunar station would probably need the help of a small orbiting sub-station just 60 miles from the lunar surface, as well as a New generation of lunar landers that NASA has not even started "I would personally like to see many lunar landers and a new lunar orbiter [low]," said Siegler. "So, if the bridge allows it, I'll support it." But he added that it might be better to simply push drones and human explorers straight from Earth to the moon. As for Mars, William Gerstenmaier, an associate director of NASA, said that the agency's experience with the gateway "would ultimately result" by an inhabited mission on the red planet. 19659002] In 2015, Apollo's astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, developed a loose concept for landings on Mars that involves training astronauts during stopovers aboard orbital lunar bases. A lunar station could also function as a gas station for Mars-related spaceships.
But NASA has largely abandoned concrete plans to land astronauts on Mars. The official website of the agency vaguely states that a mission on Mars should take place "in the future".
But there is no real calendar. And NASA is no longer developing many key technologies for a Mars mission. Chris Impey, an astronomer from the University of Arizona, told The Daily Beast
that NASA is taking a mission seriously on Mars, the ability of the bridge station to support this mission is meaningless. "A fuel depot beyond the Moon would be useful for other exploration missions and Mars, but that's not part of the plan," said Impey
Too far from the moon to effectively support lunar and useless exploration for Mars. A real mission on the Red Planet, the Door is exposed for what it really is – a symbol, according to Siegler.
With China sending its own drones and people on the moon in the next few years, NASA and White The house seems to be scared. They are looking for a short-term lunar station to send a message, even though this station is not practical. "The United States is obviously trying to make a political statement that they are the leaders in space," Siegler said.
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