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The module, which was commissioned to create Northrop Grumman, will be a kind of temporary “home” for astronauts. At the same time, according to engineers, it will be based on developments from the Cygnus spacecraft. Last year, a model of such a device was already assembled and tested by the company’s specialists together with NASA. The module involves the presence of four docking nodes that will be able to receive new spacecraft from Earth, a system of engines for maneuvering and a life support system for astronauts. The first stage of development will cost the company $ 187 million - then NASA will continue to fund the project as the device is ready.

What is noteworthy, the second module of the lunar station will be built by another company — Maxar Technologies, which received a contract from NASA for $ 375 million in 2019. This module will have solar panels and equipment for communication with Earth. That is, the US lunar station will be a "prefabricated hodgepodge", the development of which will be carried out by some companies, and the launch will be carried out by a third — SpaceX.


A mock-up of the Northrop Grumman module that was tested by NASA in 2019

Why do we need a lunar station?
Humanity learned to create space stations in one form or another back in the 1970s (we see this in the example of the ISS), but all of them were used only in low-Earth orbit. But it is a completely different bulgaria number data matter to build a station near the Moon, which, in fact, NASA plans to do in the near future with the support of other space agencies and private companies.

“The last thing we want to do is visit the surface of the Moon, prove we can do it, and be done with it. We want to stay there. Gateway will allow us to leverage commercial and international partners so that we stay there and explore the Moon more than ever before, and then move on to Mars,” NASA scientists say.

Gateway should become humanity's springboard into deep space. Perhaps in the future it will even replace the ISS, which is expected to be removed from orbit in the next few years.

The first Gateway will serve as a test bed for the technologies needed to reach Mars. Today, for example, some components of life support systems operate for about six months before failure. NASA would like to bring this technology to a 30-month cycle of trouble-free operation for transportation in deep space. At the same time, the United States does not want to build another International Space Station, which, compared to the lunar station, is located “within walking distance” of Earth, but simply to make a “stopover point” where astronauts can stay for a while. This will be much cheaper.