it's time for NASA to cancel the lunar Gateway but what exactly is lunar Gateway the lunar Gateway
will be a permanently inhabited space station that will orbit the Moon in this regard it is
analogous to the International Space Station which presently maintains a geosynchronous orbit above
the planet in the end the Gateway will be built to give mankind a location close to the Moon where
they can carry out experiments and finish research projects in space want to know more hello everyone
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crude and unmanned missions to the surface of the Moon will be supported by the Gateway when
embarking on crude missions NASA's astronauts will initially go to the gateway to the Orion cruise
ship after that a human Lander will be utilized to safely transport the astronauts to the surface of
the Moon despite the fact that it has not yet been evaluated for use in this capacity NASA
has decided that the SpaceX Starship will serve as the human Lander so what is the orbit of the
lunar Gateway the lunar Gateway will operate in the moon's near rectilinear Halo orbit because
of this peculiar orbit the Gateway will be 932 miles above the moon's surface at its closest
point the Gateway will reach a maximum altitude of 43 495 miles above the moon's surface however it
is still a long way from Earth the station will be around 240 000 miles from Earth and will orbit the
earth alongside the moon much like our natural satellite does so what are the lunar gateway's
components the Gateway is made up of several parts while these components demonstrate the
multinational effort that has helped bring the project to fruition none of them are ready for
orbit around the Moon NASA's initial priority is to build and test the components required for a
human landing on the moon the power and propulsion element is a 60 kilowatt spaceship capable of
providing power altitude control Communications and orbital transfer the habitation and Logistics
Outpost this will give Basics life support to the gateway's crew members so what will be the size of
the lunar Gateway the interior pressurized volume of the lunar Gateway is 125 cubic meters it can
accommodate up to four crew members for 30 to 90 day missions the International Space Station by
comparison has an interior pressurized volume of 32 333 cubic feet it normally houses Seven
astronauts the Gateway will be roughly 1 6 the size of the ISS which is roughly the size of a
football field according to the BBC the main body of the Gateway is somewhat larger than a London
Underground tube Carriage when is NASA planning to launch the lunar Gateway the essential power
and propulsion elements as well as the habitation and Logistics outposts of the lunar Gateway are
expected to launch into orbit no sooner than November 2024. the Falcon heavy rocket the
most powerful operational rocket at the time of writing will be used for the launch this is the
same rocket that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk used in February 2018 to launch his red Tesla Roadster
into orbit the mission will take out from launch complex 39a at Florida's Kennedy Space Center
during the real Artemis missions NASA intends to deliver humans to the lunar Gateway utilizing the
space launch system rocket which is still in the early stages of development it remains to be seen
whether NASA can stick to this plan especially when the agency announced in November 2021 that
litigation had put the first human Landing back many months in 2025. Artemis 1 which does not
require a crew and is critical to the success of the lunar Gateway and subsequent Artemis missions
has also been pushed back to May 2022 at the earliest from an earlier deadline of March
2022 according to a recent report published in ours Technica a recently released NASA document
reveals that there is some terrible news as well as some good news regarding the Artemis
Return To The Moon program the bad news is that the pace of Artemis trips to the moon will slow
to an unsustainable crawl as a direct result of the expenditures connected with establishing the
lunar Gateway this will result in years passing in between flights and the development of a lunar
Outpost will be put back to the 2030s the good news is that by scrapping plans for the lunar
Gateway it's possible that many of these issues can be resolved the lunar Gateway which was
formally referred to as the deep space Gateway when it was first envisioned during the Obama
Administration and was later renamed the lunar orbital platform Gateway is intended to be placed
in an elliptical lunar orbit and would as the name suggests act as a gateway to the surface of the
Moon after docking at the lunar Gateway astronauts aboard the Orion would next board a human Landing
system to complete the journey to the surface of the Moon the primary reason why NASA decided
to maintain the Gateway and reuse it for the Artemis mission was due to the fact that the
Orion cannot enter low lunar orbit or depart once its Mission has been completed while in a higher
elliptical polar orbit the Orion will be able to dock at the lunar Gateway this orbit will take
at approximately 3000 kilometers above the lunar North Pole and 70 000 kilometers above the lunar
South Pole after taking off from the lunar Gateway the hls would fly to the surface of the Moon and
make its last stop there the hls would lift off dock with the Gateway and then the crew would
transfer back to the Orion to return to earth once the surface mission was through in the meanwhile
the lunar Gateway would serve as a hub where the hls could receive maintenance and resupply a fuel
well the initial elements of the lunar Gateway will launch on the commercial rocket spacex's
Falcon heavy much of it will have to use the SLS in the late 2020s and early 2030s however due to
the high costs involved the SLS can only launch at the best once a year as a consequence of this such
an attempt according to NASA's revised schedules will demand most or all of the capabilities of
the SLS rocket within that time frame and as a result they could restrict the agency from
developing a stronger focus on lunar surface activities because of this missions to the
surface of the Moon including the construction of a lunar base will be forced to proceed at a
snail's pace for the next few years the trouble with this option is that in April of last year
NASA selected spacex's Starship to serve as a lunar lander the Starship is already bigger than
the intended Gateway and it has many of the same power and propulsion capabilities as the proposed
Gateway why spend a decade and tens of billions of dollars developing the Gateway if you already have
Starship as a part of your lunar architecture and if NASA is actually interested in activities on
the lunar surface the advancements of the Artemis program can be slowed down by other problems these
include both spacesuits and the space launch system which just had a wet dress rehearsal that
wasn't exactly successful but in regard to the lunar Gateway we need to rephrase the question
that was first posed by John hubbolt the engineer who built the lunar orbit Rendezvous that allowed
the US to land on the moon during the Apollo program do we want to go back to the moon or do
we not it is time for NASA to call off the lunar Gateway project or at the very least put it on
hold so that we may go forward with our plans to visit the moon again there is a school of thought
within NASA that maintains the construction of the lunar Gateway which would be a space station
in orbit around the Moon that would be staffed by humans is essential for the testing of technology
that would keep astronauts alive during the protracted Journey to Mars this argument sounds
questionable at best When taking into account the fact that the ISS already exists and that
other commercial space stations are now in the the planning stages nevertheless if a space station in
lunar orbit is necessary in order to get to Mars then it would make sense to take a step back and
reassess it while simultaneously removing it off the vital path that leads back to the Moon as an
illustration a SpaceX Starship might be modified to function as a lunar Gateway is there anyone
at Nasa Congress or the White House who is willing to sever the gordian knot and absorb the political
criticism that comes along with it the response to this inquiry will indicate how serious we are
about realizing our goal of being a nation that is capable of exploring deep space and
taking the lead in the mission to return to the moon and that's for today's video we sincerely
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