Deep Space Gateway

Gateway Gets Good Reviews from NAC Committees

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 22:08:36 +0000

Gateway Gets Good Reviews from NAC Committees Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/28/2018 - 16:08

Marcia Smith

From Space Policy Online: Members of two NASA Advisory Council (NAC) committees representing the science and human exploration communities seem upbeat about the potential of NASA’s concept for a lunar orbiting Gateway. At a joint meeting today, they heard from engineers about the design and scientists about how it can enable “transformative” lunar science. They will report their findings and recommendations to the full NAC when it meets tomorrow and Thursday, but their discussions today conveyed strong support.

The Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) committee heard some details about the Gateway at its meeting yesterday, but this was the Science Committee’s first look.

Jason Crusan, NASA’s director of advanced exploration systems, expanded on the presentations to the HEO committee yesterday and offered a more detailed illustration of the design concept, showing potential contributions from international partners (although he mentioned that one of the modules is not correctly color coded). Read more...

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NASA Shapes Science Plan for Deep-Space Outpost Near the Moon

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 14:56:48 +0000

NASA Shapes Science Plan for Deep-Space Outpost Near the Moon Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 03/15/2018 - 08:56

David Leonard

From Space.com: NASA is pressing forward on plans to build a Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, an outpost for astronauts positioned in the space near Earth's moon.

According to NASA, the Gateway will not only be a place to live, learn and work around the moon but will also support an array of missions to the lunar surface. And scientists foresee a host of uses for the station.

By making use of a suite of instruments housed on or inside the structure itself, or free-flying nearby, scientists could make Earth and solar observations.They could also carry out astrophysics and fundamental physics experiments as well as human physiology and space biology studies. Read more...

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Shooting for the Moon-This Time to Stay

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Jan 2018 19:51:06 +0000

Shooting for the Moon-This Time to Stay Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 01/31/2018 - 12:51

Leonard David

From Scientific American: MOFFETT FIELD, Calif.—Earth’s nearest neighbor, the moon, is far from being a “been there, done that” world in space science and exploration. That’s the message from scientists and engineers at NASA’s Lunar Science for Landed Missions Workshop, recently held here at the space agency’s Ames Research Center.

Between 1969 and 1972 a dozen U.S. astronauts voyaged there to scout stretches of the desolate, crater-pocked landscape as part of NASA’s Apollo program. But almost half a century after those fleeting forays, humans have yet to go back. Now a rising tide of spacefaring nations are poised to visit (or revisit) the moon, among them European countries, China, Russia, Japan, India and, of course, the U.S.

Calling them back is the fact that, of all destinations in the solar system, the moon is not only the most accessible but also one of the most scientifically interesting. Thought to have formed shortly after Earth itself from debris ejected by our young planet’s collision with a Mars-size protoplanet, the moon has been witness to nearly 4.5 billion years of our world’s, along with the solar system’s, history. Impact craters and trace elements captured on its airless surface record processes that also shaped Earth’s early years, but were wiped out by our own planet’s geologic processes. Precisely because it is so close, so inert and so dead, the moon may be the best place in the solar system to go to answer the question of how and why Earth became so active and alive. Read more…

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