As we know, NASA is always trying to push the boundaries for exploring space.
And next up, we have a series of Artemis missions scheduled from the end of 2021.
But NASA can’t always build their own rocket and take everything to the moon as this time, they are trying to build a Lunar Gateway in the orbit of the moon
So, let’s discuss ‘Everything about Lunar Gateway and Why NASA selected Falcon Heavy for their initial missions to establish the Gateway’ in today’s video of DiscoverZen.
Lunar Gateway is a planned small space station in lunar orbit intended to serve as a solar-powered communication hub, science laboratory, short-term habitation module, and holding area for rovers and other robots.
Formerly known as the Deep Space Gateway (DSG), the station was renamed to Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G) in NASA's 2018 proposal for the 2019 United States federal budget.
The science disciplines to be studied on the Gateway are expected to include planetary science, astrophysics, Earth observation, heliophysics, fundamental space biology, and human health and performance.
The International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG), which is composed of more than 14 space agencies including all major ones, has concluded that Gateway will be critical in expanding a human presence to the Moon,
Mars, and deeper into the Solar System.
While the project is led by NASA, the Gateway is meant to be developed, serviced, and utilized in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency, European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and commercial partners.
It will serve as the staging point for both robotic and crewed exploration of the lunar south pole and is the proposed staging point for NASA's Deep Space Transport concept for transport to Mars.
Gateway will be the first mini-space station to be both human-rated, and autonomously operating most of the time in its early years, as well as being the first deep-space station, far from Low Earth orbit.
This will be enabled by more sophisticated executive control software than on any prior space station, which will monitor and control all systems.
The high-level architecture is provided by the Robotics and Intelligence for Human Spaceflight lab at NASA and implemented at NASA facilities.
The Gateway could conceivably also support in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) development and testing from lunar and asteroid sources and would offer the opportunity for a gradual buildup of capabilities for more complex missions over time.
On the 9th of February 2020, NASA announced that it has awarded SpaceX a $331 million contract to launch the first two pieces of the Gateway lunar outpost in 2024 using a modified version of the Falcon Heavy rocket to hurl the massive core of the deep space station towards the moon.
The Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element (PPE), and Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) will launch in tandem no earlier than May 2024 aboard the Falcon Heavy rocket from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The $331.8 Million launch services contract, awarded by NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy, includes the Falcon Heavy launch and “other mission-related costs.”
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket will haul the PPE and HALO into a high-altitude orbit around Earth.
The PPE’s solar-electric thrusters will guide the stack toward the moon, where the Gateway will enter an elliptical lunar orbit to take a position for the docking of Orion crew capsules with astronauts.
NASA intends for human-rated lunar landers to also link up with the Gateway in orbit around the moon, and the landing craft could be refueled at the Gateway for multiple trips to and from the lunar surface.
The combined function of the HALO and Orion life support systems will sustain up to four astronauts for up to 30 days on the Gateway, according to NASA.
SpaceX is on contract for other parts of NASA’s Artemis architecture.
The company’s Dragon XL cargo vehicle will deliver supplies to the Gateway space station.
The Dragon XL missions will also launch on Falcon Heavy rockets.
A version of SpaceX’s next-generation Starship vehicle, which engineers are designing as a fully reusable rocket, could be used as a lunar lander to transport crews to and from the lunar surface.
SpaceX is competing against teams led by Blue Origin and Dynetics for the full lunar lander development contract.
SpaceX has launched three Falcon Heavy rocket missions to date, all successfully, and the company has at least two more scheduled this year.
With the Gateway launch contract, the company has seven confirmed Falcon Heavy missions in its backlog, including two U.S. Space Force missions this year, launches of a Viasat broadband communications satellite, and NASA’s Psyche asteroid explorer in 2022, and two Dragon XL cargo missions to the Gateway.
The Falcon Heavy is made up of three modified Falcon 9 first-stage boosters connected together in a triple-core configuration.
The rocket’s 27 Merlin main engines produce about 5.1 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, more than any other currently operational rocket (excluding SLS which is still in production).
So, why did NASA choose SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy over any other rockets?
Well, that’s because of the price and reliability.
At around 330 million dollars for a single launch for these two elements, it’s too cheap considering SLS’ single launch cost can be more than a billion dollars.
And also this payload is around 11 metric tonnes and SLS can transfer about 26 metric tonnes to lunar orbit.
In other words, SLS is just too big and too expensive for this small payload.
Now let’s talk about Lunar Gateway’s Orbit and Operations...
The Gateway is planned to be deployed in a highly elliptical seven-day near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) around the Moon, which would bring the station within 3,000 kilometers or 1,900 miles of the lunar north pole at closest approach and as far away as 70,000 kilometers or 43,000 miles over the lunar south pole.
Traveling to and from lunar orbit is intended to develop the knowledge and experience necessary to venture beyond the Moon and into deep space.
The proposed NRHO would allow lunar expeditions from the Gateway to reach a low polar orbit with a delta-v of 730 meters per sec and half a day of transit time.
Orbital station-keeping would require less than 10 meters per sec of delta-v per year and the orbital inclination could be shifted with a relatively small delta-v expenditure, allowing access to most of the lunar surface.
Spacecraft launched from Earth would perform a powered flyby of the Moon, which would require a delta-v of about 180 meters per sec followed by a 240 meters per sec delta-v NRHO insertion burn to dock with the Gateway as it approaches the apoapsis point of its orbit.
The total travel time would be 5 days; the return to Earth would be similar in terms of trip duration and delta-v requirement if the spacecraft spends 11 days at the Gateway.
The crewed mission duration of 21 days and about 840 meters per sec delta-v are limited by the capabilities of the Orion life support and propulsion systems.
One of the advantages of an NRHO is the minimal amount of communications blackout with the Earth.
The Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency plan to participate in the Gateway project, contributing a robotic arm, refueling and communications hardware, and habitation and research capacity.
Those international elements will launch after the PPE and HALO are placed into lunar orbit.
Now we know about the Lunar Gateway.
Next, let’s see about the upcoming NASA Artemis mission.
Well, that sounds like a different video to discuss on DIscoverZen.