Northrop Grumman has delivered a full-scale mockup of the astronaut accommodations developed for a small space station orbiting the moon to Space Center Houston. This exhibit will give visitors a glimpse into the future of lunar exploration, as NASA’s Artemis program aims to return humans to the moon, including the first woman and person of color. Learn more about the Artemis program and the role of the Lunar Gateway in this exciting endeavor.
Solving Mysteries of Moon Missions
The lunar habitat mockup for Northrop Grumman’s Gateway outpost arrives Monday at Space Center Houston, symbolizing the latest leap forward in NASA’s ambitious Artemis program to return astronauts to the moon. A full-scale prototype like this, which NASA uses to test out its various design ideas, gives a practical look at what lunar exploration will look like.
Future visitors will be able to enter the 14.5-foot-wide by 21-foot-long module, which was part of the NextSTEP-2 solicitation for deep-space habitation elements and gives an impression of what it might be like to live and work in a lunar orbit habitat. Sleep stations, work areas and a variety of scientific equipment racks provide visitors with a taste for what the daily lives and challenges could be for astronauts staying in lunar orbit for weeks at a time.
Leading to the Artemis Gateway
Indeed, at Space Center Houston a lunar habitat mockup similar to ACE is intricately associated with Artemis Gateway, an indispensable element for NASA’s ambitions of returning to the moon. Ice and other natural resources exist on the moon, and the open unit can support ait numbers of experiments in this human-tended lunar-orbit outpost that will enable transfers between orbital purification facilities recreated on Earth for research payloads.
Northrop Grumman’s HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) module, built on the backbone of the Cygnus spacecraft it already flies to orbit for NASA resupply missions, will be integral member of NASA’s Artemis Gateway. Slated for launch in the next few years, HALO also will serve as docking ports for Orion spacecraft and moon landers and give the first living quarters for visiting crews. This rendering at Space Center Houston gives an idea of the design and scale of this critical piece of lunar real estate.
Challenges of Lunar Exploration And How to Get Around Them
The lunar habitat mockup and HALO module underscore the technical hurdles that Northrop Grumman and NASA will have to clear to establish a consistent human presence at the moon. Radiation levels, the thermal environment of lunar space, and the special needs for visiting crews staying for long periods call for out-of-the-box thinking and extreme engineering.
The NextSTEP-2 mockup, which is on view at Space Center Houston, has also been a key tool in helping NASA assess different design concepts and ultimately choose Northrop Grumman’s HALO for the Artemis Gateway. The knowledge gained from this prototype will inform the refinement and optimization of final flight hardware as NASA matures plans for its sustainable, long-term return to the Moon under Artemis.
