NASA has released a detailed 3D animation of its Gateway project, the first space station to orbit the Moon for deep space missions.
A minute and a half video shows its modules and structural components from various angles with the darkness of space in the background.
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Starting with the Artemis IV mission in 2028, international teams of astronauts living, conducting scientific research and preparing for missions to the lunar South Pole region at Gateway will be the first humans to make their home in deep space.
This artistic computer-generated animation presents an exterior tour of Gateway in stunning detail. The Gateway elements represented are:
– Power and Propulsion Element, which will make Gateway the most powerful solar electric spacecraft ever launched. The module will use energy from the Sun to power the space station’s subsystems and ionize xenon gas to produce the thrust that will maintain Gateway’s unique polar orbit around the Moon.
– HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost), the Gateway command and control nexus that provides communications between Earth and the lunar surface with the Lunar Link system provided by ESA (European Space Agency). HALO will house life support systems, including exercise equipment and scientific payload banks.
– Lunar I-Hab, provided by ESA with hardware contributions from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), will house environmental control and life support systems, bedrooms and a kitchen, among other features.
– Lunar View, provided by ESA, will have refueling capabilities for the power and propulsion element, cargo storage and large windows.
– Crew and Science Airlock, provided by the Mohammad Bin Rashid Space Center in the United Arab Emirates, for the transfer of crew and hardware from inside Gateway to the vacuum of space.
– Canadarm3 advanced external robotic system provided by CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
– Deep Space Logistics spacecraft that will transport cargo to Gateway to support the Artemis missions. Gateway’s first scientific payloads, which will study solar and cosmic radiation, a poorly understood phenomenon that is a major concern for people and equipment traveling through deep space, including Mars. The payloads visible in this video are ERSA (European Radiation Sensors Array), provided by ESA, docked to the power and propulsion element, and HERMES (Heliophysics Environmental and Radiation Measurement Experiment Suite), led by NASA, docked to HALO. A third scientific radiation payload, IDA (Internal Dosimeter Array), provided by ESA and JAXA, will be inside HALO.
The video also shows an Orion spacecraft docked at the airlock for crew and science. Orion will transport international astronaut teams and three modules (Lunar I-Hab, Lunar View, and the crew and science airlock) to the Gateway space station.
Also included is the Government-reference Human Landing System (HLS) that will transport astronauts to and from the lunar South Pole region. SpaceX and Blue Origin are contracted to provide Starship HLS and Blue Moon HLS, respectively.
