As a key part of NAS's "Artemis" plan to establish a permanent manned American presence on the moon, "Gateway" outpost is a modular spacecraft, which will stop in orbit around the moon to support manned and unmanned missions to the moon and one day go to Mars.
One of the most important "portal" modules is "Halo", which is said to be equivalent to a small studio apartment, including a life support system that works in cooperation with the docked Orion spacecraft. At present, HALO is still in the preliminary design stage, and it is planned to be reviewed by the end of this year. The contract worth $6.5438+87 million will provide funds for Halo. According to NASA, the design is based on a cost plus incentive contract, which Northrop will use to fund subcontractors. If the design stage is successful, a second contract will be awarded to cover the manufacturing and assembly costs.
Although many details of the design have not yet been determined, NASA said that the Portal's power and propulsion module (PPE) will be integrated with HALO in 2023. The reason why this is done instead of splicing the modules together on the track is because the docking operation can be omitted and the cost and risk can be reduced. PPE powers the outpost and is equipped with a 60 kW solar electric propulsion system, which will be used to allow the space station to change its orbit.
Dan Hartman, Gateway project manager of NASA Johnson Space Center, said: "We have made great progress in the first two aspects, including the inclusion of components from ESA, Canadian Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and payloads from our research community." "The new plan to integrate the two elements of Gateway proves that the agency and our partners have the flexibility to re-evaluate the plan as needed. By starting these elements together, we can greatly reduce the risk profile of the portal and improve cost-effectiveness. "