VIDEO: NASA Shapes Science Plan for Deep-Space Outpost Near the Moon

NASA Shapes Science Plan for Deep-Space Outpost Near the Moon

By Leonard David, Space.com's Space Insider Columnist | March 15, 2018

DENVER — NASA is pressing forward on plans to build a Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, an outpost for astronauts positioned in the space near Earth's moon.

Boeing's design for a Deep Space Gateway, an astronaut outpost near the moon. NASA is developing plans for a new Lunar Orbital Platform Gateway in orbit near the moon for future astronaut missions.

Credit: Boeing

According to NASA, the Gateway will not only be a place to live, learn and work around the moon but will also support an array of missions to the lunar surface. And scientists foresee a host of uses for the station.

By making use of a suite of instruments housed on or inside the structure itself, or free-flying nearby, scientists could make Earth and solar observations.They could also carry out astrophysics and fundamental physics experiments as well as human physiology and space biology studies.

NASA's fiscal year 2019 budget request calls for launching the first element of the Gateway – its power and propulsion module – into space in 2022. NASA plans to launch the module through a competitive commercial launch contract in an effort to both speed up establishment of the Gateway and advance commercial partnerships in deep space. Under that plan, construction of the Gateway would be complete after two additional launches by 2025, rounding out the complex with habitation, logistics and airlock capabilities. [6 Private Deep-Space Habitat Concepts for Mars]

https://www.space.com/39985-nasa-lunar-orbital-platform-gateway-science-plan.html

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