Since construction of the International Space Station started to wrap up in the late 2000s,
NASA has had the idea to construct an ISS for the moon.
Over the years, NASA has received support from multiple presidents for the Lunar Gateway
and they have sunk billions into the project.
But, just last year, NASA announced that the Lunar Gateway was no longer a critical path
to the moon.
So, why is the Lunar Gateway failing to take shape.
Well, taking a look at the origins of the Lunar Gateway, we’ll find ourselves in April
of 2010.
At the time, President Obama called for NASA to complete a crewed mission to a nearby asteroid.
Nasa would quickly determine that such a mission would be infeasible.
Astronauts would have to spend months in a spacecraft and the technology simply wasn’t
ready yet.
So, Nasa would reject this plan, but ironically, they would propose an alternate plan that
was arguably even crazier.
This alternate plan was the asteroid redirect mission.
The idea was that a spacecraft could go and grab a small near earth asteroid and take
it into orbit around the moon.
This way, astronauts could go and live in the spacecraft attached to the asteroid and
explore the asteroid over a long period of time.
Congress wasn’t a big fan of the idea though.
They didn’t believe that the mission was either practical or useful.
This rejection would lead us into 2017 where NASA revealed their vision for the modern
lunar gateway.
Nasa proposed a two phase plan with the first phase calling for the assembly of a collection
of space modules in a distant orbit around the moon called the deep space gateway.
They originally planned for this phase to be completed by the late 2020s at which point
they could move onto phase 2 which was the deep space transport.
The deep space transport was simply a large spacecraft that could shuttle astronauts from
the moon to mars.
Nasa hoped that assembling this spacecraft at the deep space gateway would reduce the
difficulty of launching such a large spacecraft directly from earth.
This plan wouldn’t quite pan out either, but it would take on a new form.
You see, President Trump would call on Nasa to not only send astronauts to the moon, but
also build a new permanent presence in space.
The guidelines for Nasa weren’t too strict, so Nasa would build upon their past lunar
space station ideas and propose the most ambitious version of the Gateway.
This version involved help from many of the space leaders around the world including Russia,
Japan, Europe, and Canada.
The gateway was proposed to have 9 different modules including a habitation module, a robotic
arm, a docking component, and a plethora of science modules.
At this point, Nasa was basically just pitching the idea of building an ISS around the moon.
Though extremely ambitious, Nasa was able to garner support from several space leaders,
so it seemed like the Lunar Gateway would actually take shape.
But this is when Vice President Pence would completely redirect the focus of Nasa in March
of 2019.
Pence wouldn’t cancel the Lunar Gateway, but he would put out a goal that would require
basically all of Nasa’s focus.
Pence wanted Nasa to return astronauts to the moon in 2024.
Given this new goal, Nasa would be forced to completely change around their priorities
and timelines.
They would cancel or postpone everything that wasn’t required to return humans to the
moon.
And unfortunately, the majority of the Lunar Gateway was not required to return people
to the moon.
But this brings up the question.
If the Lunar Gateway is not required to return people to the moon, why was Nasa spending
so much money and effort on the project in the first place?
Given that we haven’t been able to return humans to the moon in nearly 50 years, you
would think that getting to the moon would be a top priority and that all distractions
would already be cut out.
Well, the answer to this question is extremely complicated as there are several experts on
both sides of the argument.
Some think that the Lunar Gateway is a no brainer for long term human spaceflight while
others suggest that the Lunar Gateway is an utter waste of time, money, and effort.
So, let’s begin by taking a look at the proponents of the Lunar Gateway starting with
Nasa themselves.
Nasa claims that there are three primary reasons to support the development of Gateway with
the first being the power and propulsion element.
The Lunar Gateway is expected to support a 60 kilowatt solar electric propulsion system,
top of the line communications systems, attitude control, and orbital transfer capabilities.
Nasa argues that positioning all of this tech near the astronauts visiting the moon will
highly improve the likelihood of a successful mission.
For instance, even if the astronauts were not able to communicate with mission control
on earth, they may be able to contact the Lunar Gateway.
Similarly, if something goes wrong with their rocket, they may be able to stay on the self-sustaining
Lunar Gateway.
Basically, astronauts traveling to the moon will have more options available if a major
error occurs with the mission.
Nasa’s second argument in favor of the Lunar gateway is the gateway’s ability to act
as a habitation and logistics output.
Till now, we have only completed a couple of manned missions to the moon and all of
them were rather short.
Apollo 11, for instance, only included 21 hours and 36 minutes on the lunar surface.
The short mission durations can be explained by the fact that there was no long term living
facility located right next to the moon.
Astronauts in the Apollo missions had a limited amount of food and resources, so they couldn’t
just spend 6 months at the moon.
The Lunar Gateway, however, would make this possible.
Astronauts could live inside the Lunar Gateway for several months at a time and complete
dozens of trips to the moon.
Along with this, we have Nasa’s third reason for supporting the Lunar Gateway which is
its logistical capabilities.
The Gateway would be much larger than nearly all modern rockets, so Nasa can use the Gateway
for storage and transportation purposes.
Before each lunar mission, Nasa can send a wide variety of different experiments and
testing equipment to the lunar gateway.
And during the mission, the astronauts would be able to bring back lunar samples and conduct
various tests on them at the gateway itself.
The ability to conduct tests near the moon would allow Nasa to conduct many more tests
and be much more flexible.
After all, to get more lunar samples, you don’t have to launch another rocket to the
moon.
You just have to descend to the Lunar surface and collect some more samples.
That’s the main reasons that Nasa offers on their official page about the Lunar Gateway.
But there is one more advantage that proponents of the gateway often point to which is a transition
point for a martian mission.
Getting to mars takes about 6 months with today’s technology, so a large spacecraft
with nice sleeping, bathroom, and exercising facilities would be optimal.
Launching such a spacecraft directly from earth would be extremely difficult due to
the large size of the spacecraft.
But what if we launched components of a large spacecraft into space piece by piece and assembled
it in space like the Deep Space Transport plan suggested.
The hardest part of launching a large spacecraft is getting it into space.
Once the spacecraft is in space, it’s much easier to move it around due to a lack of
gravity, air resistance, and drag.
By following this plan, astronauts could simply fly in a regular cramped rocket to the lunar
gateway.
And at the Lunar Gateway, they could transition into the large spacecraft to complete their
journey to Mars.
This would heavily reduce the pressure of trying to build a massive rocket that can
fly directly from Earth to Mars.
Not to mention, this would give the astronauts a much more comfortable way to travel.
So, that’s the points that proponents of the gateway bring up.
Now, let’s take a look at the other side.
Some notable critics include former nasa administrator Michael Griffin and the founder of the Mars
Society Robert Zubrin.
These critics argue that the Lunar Gateway is not only a money pit, but completely pointless.
Like most space projects, the Lunar Gateway is expected to cost a lot of money coming
in at $40 billion.
And let’s not forget that space projects tend to often overrun their budgets by quite
a bit.
So, it would not be surprising to see the gateway end up costing $60 or even $70 billion.
Something else to consider is that going to the gateway to get to the moon adds 17% to
the fuel cost of getting to the moon.
Aside from costing a massive amount of money, building the gateway would likely take several
years.
It took 10 years to build the ISS itself and that’s only in low earth orbit.
Imagine how long it could take to build a space station in lunar orbit.
The worst part though is that all of that money and effort doesn’t even give us any
new capabilities.
Sure, having a lunar gateway would be convenient for conducting experiments with lunar samples.
But, it’s not like those same experiments can’t just be completed on earth or at the
ISS.
What about astronaut safety though?
Building a lunar gateway can significantly improve the safety of astronauts visiting
the moon.
Well, the primary argument against this point is that we can just build a lunar base instead.
Why spend all that money and effort on building a lunar ISS when you could just spend all
that money and effort on building a lunar base.
A lunar base would accomplish all of the functions of a Lunar Gateway better.
If you’re going to argue that the gateway is convenient, well the base is even more
convenient.
You can live and conduct experiments right on the moon.
If you’re going to argue that the gateway provides greater safety, well the base provides
even more safety.
With a base, you don’t even have to ascend to the gateway to return to safety or contact
mission control.
Most importantly though, building a lunar base would be a major step forward in terms
of space exploration.
We’ve already built a massive space station, so building one for the moon would be more
of a sideways step.
Building a lunar base though would give us valuable experience that could help us eventually
build a base and city on Mars.
Basically, people who are against the gateway argue that a lunar base and the gateway offer
very similar pros and cons.
So, why not just go ahead and take the bigger leap forward and build a base instead of jacking
around with another space station.
As for what Nasa plans to do, though the gateway has been postponed, they haven’t completely
ditched it quite yet.
But given the strong opposition from credible experts, it’s very possible that the ISS
for the moon will never end up happening.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing though.
It just means we have more money and resources to build a lunar base instead.
Do you guys support the lunar gateway?
Comment that down below.
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