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Mission planners at NASA and ESA's Operations Centre (ESOC) have spent months debating the pros and cons of different orbits, and have now decided on the path of the Lunar Gateway.
Like the International Space Station, the Gateway will be a permanent and changeable human outpost. Instead of circling our planet however, it will orbit the moon, acting as a base for astronauts and robots exploring the lunar surface.
Like a mountain refuge, it will also provide shelter and a place to stock up on supplies for astronauts en route to more distant destinations, as well as providing a place to relay communications and a laboratory for scientific research.
Mission analysis teams at ESOC are continuing to work closely with international partners to understand how this choice of orbit affects vital aspects of the mission—including landing, rendezvous with future spacecraft and contingency scenarios needed to keep people and infrastructure safe.
The Gateway, it has recently been decided, will follow a near-rectilinear halo orbit, or NRHO.
Instead of orbiting around the moon in a low lunar orbit like Apollo, the Gateway will follow a highly 'eccentric' path. At is closest, it will pass 3000 km from the lunar surface and at its furthest, 70 000 km. The orbit will actually rotate together with the moon, and as seen from the Earth will appear a little like a lunar halo.
Orbits like this are possible because of the interplay between the Earth and moon's gravitational forces. As the two large bodies dance through space, a smaller object can be 'caught' in a variety of stable or near-stable positions in relation to the orbiting masses, also known as libration or Lagrange points.
Such locations are perfect for planning long-term missions, and to some extent dictate the design of the spacecraft, what it can carry to and from orbit, and how much energy it needs to get—and stay—there.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by SDRefugee on Saturday July 20 2019, @12:25AM (2 children)
Along with SpaceX, theres one other company that, together with SpaceX, could put this lunar orbiting space station up TODAY (or at least tommorrow).. That second company is located right here in Las Vegas, and is known as Bigelow Aerospace. They made the BEAM module that is currently on the ISS and have two of their earlier, smaller Genesis inflatables in orbit, both of which, AFAICT are still orbiting the Earth, after being launched, the first in 2006, and the second in 2007, by russian launches. They manufacture the B330 (http://bigelowaerospace.com/pages/b330/) as a standalone space station. According to the website, a Falcon Heavy could launch that beast, and get it to lunar orbit....
America should be proud of Edward Snowden, the hero, whether they know it or not..
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday July 20 2019, @12:37AM
I know all about it [wikipedia.org].
It would be nice to finally see B330 in orbit. Unfortunately, ISS is a dead end if countries decide to abandon it from 2024-2028. Maybe China will buy one for their upcoming station.
Also, don't forget about BA 2100 [wikipedia.org]. A single module would be double the entire volume of the ISS. Starship should be able to lift that, especially given its volume increase (payload to LEO decreased to "100+ metric tons" but that should be enough and could go up as Starship and the Raptor engine improve). Also, crewed versions of Starship rated for travel to Mars may be able to stay at a space station indefinitely instead of 210 days, adding a lot of useful and cheap [teslarati.com] volume.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday July 20 2019, @12:50AM
That would certainly be a coup for them wouldn't it? And probably one of the cheaper places to start, while being an excellent test bed for a very promising technology. Might be a little scary as an inhabitant, but the early ISS can't have been much better. I wonder how it would affect their plans to launch a B330-based space hotel in 2021?
And of course the B2100 sounds like it's reached the point that it's mostly just waiting for a launch vehicle - which both the BFR and SLS should be able to handle, as well as *maybe* the New Glenn, if they manage to make that doozy of a technological leap. All of which should be ready for payloads...any year now.