22
votes
Will SpaceX help with the Lunar Gateway Space Station at all?
tl;dr Gateway couldn't exist without SpaceX: the first two modules will be launched on Falcon Heavy, SpaceX supplies Gateway, and SpaceX supplies the lander which brings astronauts from the Gateway to ...
- 20.7k
22
votes
Accepted
What ever happened to the Asteroid Redirect Mission?
Warning: There is no way to decouple politics from this; I have tried to be objective.
What ended as the ARM (Asteroid Redirect Mission) officially began in a speech by then-President Obama in April ...
- 189k
17
votes
Accepted
What is a near rectilinear halo orbit?
Halo orbit families exist near the L1, L2, and L3 librations points. This video focuses on the L1 and L2 halo families. There are northern and southern families at each of the libration points. The ...
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11
votes
Accepted
Why is a near rectilinear halo orbit proposed for LOP-G (formerly known as Deep Space Gateway?)
In fact, they are the preferred option among other staging orbits by analyzing multiple factors:
EARTH ACCESS:
A study considering NASA SLS and Orion performances was carried out. Since SLS places ...
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10
votes
Why is the US building a Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G)?
A zillion years ago I was at a meeting where large projects were discussed and attempted to be justified. A slide was shown listing say five reasons why project such-and-such was absolutely vital and ...
- 151k
7
votes
Is it possible to open and close ROSAs several times?
ROSA-style Solar panels are designed so that they can be retracted. This was tested on iROSA in 2017, but due to technical difficulties, the retraction attempts failed to lock into place. Three ...
- 1,235
6
votes
Why is the US building a Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G)?
Let's examine what Jim Bridenstine, current director of NASA and previous member of the Rocket Racing League (1, 2, 3) says.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine Explains the Lunar Gateway is a ...
- 151k
6
votes
Why is the US building a Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G)?
I can maybe answer these questions, as someone that has worked on NextSTEP studies (HAB, PPE) and HLS Architecture and Lander Studies. In general, I thought a lot of the news articles were mostly ...
- 978
5
votes
How does Lunar Gateway compare to ISS and MIR
The design of the Gateway is still in flux, but here's an illustration from a couple of years ago showing it next to the ISS (lower right corner).
Source (in Spanish)
This image compares Mir and ISS
...
- 189k
5
votes
What is the optimum lunar latitude for a solar farm and hydrolysis plant?
However, the optimum location for solar farms is not at the latitude of the hypothesized water.
It most certainly is, assuming the solar arrays are orientable. There are places near the Moon's south ...
- 77.4k
5
votes
What are the advantages and disadvantages of assembling a space station in LEO before sending it to its intended Lunar orbit?
Making this a community wiki answer so others may add to it as they see fit:
Advantages
LEO assembly allows less mission risk if assembly does not go completely as planned. It's much easier to ...
5
votes
Accepted
LOPG/Deep Space Gateway - What is a cislunar orbit?
Cislunar space is a large area:
The region outside Earth's atmosphere and extending out to just beyond the Moon's orbit, including the Lagrangian points, is sometimes referred to as cis-lunar space....
- 130k
5
votes
How much delta-v does it take to get from a Lunar Transfer Orbit to a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit around the moon
The delta-v from LEO to NRHO is 3.95 km/s.
The flight time is 5.33 days with an impulsive departure from LEO at 3.124 km/s and an NRHO capture impulse of 0.829 km/s.
http://newpapyrusmagazine....
4
votes
Will Soyuz spacecraft be able to visit the Lunar Gateway?
According to Popular Mechanics (2018):
The capability to orbit the Moon with the crew is very important for Roscosmos because it will make it possible for Soyuz to pay periodic visits to the ...
- 6,710
4
votes
Is the Gateway's halo orbit bound to Earth? Would the Gateway remain in Earth orbit if the Moon disappeared?
No. The gateway is not bound to Earth, if we interpret "bound to Earth if the Moon disappears" as not drifting into interplanetary space regardless of what instance the Moon's gravitational ...
4
votes
Accepted
Aspects of "true deep space environment" on Gateway not thoroughly explored by decades of habitation of nine space stations already?
Your last sentence hits the major point. Other than Apollo, no humans have been outside of the Van Allen radiation belts. All of the astronauts on the nine space stations have been largely spared ...
- 48.4k
4
votes
Accepted
Going to the Lunar gateway during the upcoming solar maximum! What will the radiation environment be like?
How this is managed is a bit complex. The short answer is there may well be some clever ticks but weight constraints mean an effective radiation shield is not really a feasible option and apollo-style ...
- 3,442
3
votes
Why "The Gateway" could not use Circumlunar trajectory?
Because the Gateway is supposed to stay at the Moon, not return to Earth.
- 20.7k
3
votes
Accepted
How many stages (approximately) will likely be used to get NASA astronauts to the Moon's south pole and safely back to Earth?
Pending ongoing litigation; Starship-HLS is NASA's selected human Moon lander.
Saturn V had 3 stages; Apollo CSM was 1 stage and the Apollo Lunar Module was 2 stages. SLS launch is 3 stages (well...); ...
- 4,283
2
votes
What are the advantages and disadvantages of assembling a space station in LEO before sending it to its intended Lunar orbit?
LEO is a bit dangerous in my book. If anything goes wrong you may not have enough of a margin to fix things. Put the station in a little higher orbit and make your deliveries to LEO and use tug to ...
- 21
2
votes
Could the Soyuz/Progress supply and crew a space station in Lunar orbit?
The question asks how long it would take. All "direct" trajectories to the Moon take about the same time -- 3 days. In principle you could shorten this by using quite large amounts of extra fuel (both ...
- 19.7k
2
votes
Could the Soyuz/Progress supply and crew a space station in Lunar orbit?
First, note that Soyuz launcher and Soyuz spacecraft are two distinct entities. The launcher is based on soviet strategic R-7 rocket, and all of its modifications are definitely not powerful enough to ...
- 191
2
votes
How do I calculate the characteristic energy for a rocket to near rectilinear halo orbit where the Deep Space Gateway is going to orbit the Moon?
Reading the linked questions, answers, and references (thanks @uhoh), particularly R. Whitley and R. Martinez, 2015, Options for Staging Orbits in Cis-Lunar Space and this figure:
Leads me to believe ...
- 10.1k
2
votes
Accepted
How will the Lunar Gateway go to L2 and L1; how much delta-v is needed?
Whether or not Jim Bridenstine said it, gateway won't literally go to L1 and L2.
The current plan is to use a Southern L2 NRHO (Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit) which doesn't actually go near the L2 point....
- 36
2
votes
Could there be a relatively stable near-rectilinear halo orbit associated with the Sun-Earth L1 or L2 points? Would the Moon screw it up?
Yes, there are stable L1 and L2 Halo orbits in the Sun-Earth system.
When I say stable, I'm using the definition of "stable" that follows from examining the stability indices (eigenvalues) ...
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2
votes
Will astronauts on the Lunar Gateway beat the record Apollo 13 set for furthest distance from Earth?
Whether or not this does happen, that's a trivial and fleeting milestone. Apollo 13 was not known for that trivial milestone. It was known for being a massive failure that was turned into a non-...
- 77.4k
2
votes
Will Soyuz spacecraft be able to visit the Lunar Gateway?
No, no, and no.
First problem: Russia doesn't have a launch vehicle capable of putting a Soyuz on a lunar trajectory. A standard Soyuz weighs 7 tons; the most capable of Russia's current rockets, the ...
- 15.9k
1
vote
Could lunar gate components be 3D printed and assembled in Low Lunar Orbit
Short answer - sure!
More practically, getting things to space is mostly limited by mass, not 'shape'. So carrying a machine+raw material will generally be worse than just flying a finished product.
...
- 25k
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