New Challenges With Building NASA’s Lunar Space Station

at this point NASA is committed to the Gateway space station with a significant amount of time and money already invested into the project by now it's also far more than just an idea but physical progress taking shape around the country this being said there are a few concerns regarding its future schedule and the complexities of creating a lunar Space Station just recently Northrop Grumman the company contracted to create the Halo module took a 36 million dollar charge on its fixed price contract decided changes in the mission plan among other things as the reason for the price cut for example new information suggests that the mission planned to launch both the Halo and PPE modules together on a falcon heavy is causing problems under the contract Northrop Grumman will complete the design and development activity currently underway and will also be responsible for integrating Halo with the power and proportion element provided by maxar Technologies here I'll go more in depth into some of the station complications possible delays gateway's timeline and more [Music] around two years ago in July 2021 Northrop Grumman finalized a contract with NASA to provide the habitation and Logistics Outpost or Halo module for NASA's Gateway under a 935 million dollar fixed price contract fixed price contract simply pay the company when they reach the agreed upon Milestone however in an earnings call Kathy Warden chief executive of Northrop Grumman said earlier work on Halo to mature the design had been done on Cost Plus contracts before the fixed price contract two years ago to produce Halo Cost Plus contracts generally pay for the company's expenses plus a fee not long ago when talking about fixed price contracts NASA administrator Bill Nelson said I believe that this is the plan that can bring us all the value of competition you get it done cheaper and that allows us to move away from what has been a plague on us in the past which is Cost Plus contract and moved to an existing contractual price despite this Northrop grumman's chief executive commented we think that this is best applied for commercial items or production programs with stable requirements and mature designs she set at fixed price contracts as it's turning out on the Halo program the requirements are not as stable as we or the government anticipated and we're working with them to address the change management as we go forward she said in other words they believe that the contract should be Cost Plus rather than fixed because too many variables are changing we'll now ideal the reality is a lot of things have changed regarding the Gateway station in only the past few years one major change in 2020 was to launch Halo and the maxar developed power and propulsion element or PPE together rather than launching them separately on their own Rockets this change reduces a lot of risk and simplifies the arrival in lunar orbit but creates other challenges the Director of Business Development at Northrop Grumman space system said overall it was a good decision it really burns down a lot of risk he also said putting the two vehicles on one launch vehicle Mass became the top issue the team has been working on that for quite a while he said to add on to this and one final quote he pointed out building a permanent Gateway in cisliner space is a lot harder than it sounds still have yet to understand the specifics of how to operate and design for CIS lunar space and the lunar surface he said this quote is slightly concerning considering the timeline and work that still needs to be done the Halo module is Paramount to the station and without it Gateway won't be capable of Hosting humans Halo will be deployed in lunar orbit as the first crew module of the NASA Gateway the module represents a critical component of the station serving as both a crew habitat and docking hub for cisliner spacecraft or spacecraft that navigate between the Earth and the Moon Halo will feature three docking ports for visiting spacecraft and other lunar support vehicles in the future both Halo and PPE will need to be ready around the same time for integration in the eventual launch this adds a few variables to the mission where one project could easily hold back the other something NASA and its partners are working to avoid in a lot of ways the Halo module has some advantages and features that theoretically should only reduce the time it takes to create it the design for Halo is based on Northrop grumman's cygnus spacecraft a human-capable vehicle delivers supplies equipment and experiments to the International Space Station there are a few design upgrades for Halo including command and control systems as well as environmental control and life support systems by basing the Halo module on cygnus we're able to deliver an affordable and reliable flight proven product on an accelerated timeline so the vice president of civil and Commercial satellites at Northrop Grumman maturing Halo through its preliminary design marks a major milestone in the modules production in the future with NASA's Orion spacecraft docked Halo will be able to sustain up to four astronauts for up to 30 days as they travel to and from the lunar surface Halo leverages contributions from a few Gateway International Partners batteries provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency or jaxa will power Halo until PPE solo Rays can be deployed and during Eclipse periods robotic interfaces provided by the Canadian space agency will host payloads and provide base points for Canada arm 3 Robotic operations the European Space Agency will provide a lunar communication system to enable High data rate Communications between the lunar surface and Gateway with three docking ports Halo will be the hub for international Gateway expansion in the future including an international habitat that Esa and jaxa will provide and an Esa provided refueling module the docking ports also will host a human Landing system for lunar surface Expeditions and Logistics resupply spacecraft as a Gateway Hub Halo will provide Power data airflow to each of these ports as well as thermal conditioning to assist future elements in spacecraft and controlling the temperature of their equipment in habitable environment all in all the module is important to this project and can't afford many delays in a recent NASA podcast with the Gateway program manager and Deputy program manager we got some more insight into the Project's timeline and some of the physical progress being made when asked about what exactly was happening the program manager said Gateway is making tremendous progress today if you look back we just started as a program in 2019 and in four years we've got significant design work behind us we've completed the critical design aspects for most part of the Halo and had the review actually just not too long ago we're heading towards the same point with PPE they're on track for looking at getting their primary structures complete in the very near term and integrating those vehicles and so we're looking at launch time frame really in less than three years from today so we're making great progress with Halo and PPE he said the first Artemis Mission that's expected to use Gateway will be Artemis 4. that mission is currently scheduled for 2028 this gives the agency a decent amount of time to get these initial segments complete and launched on a falcon heavy in the future Gateway will be Humanity's first space station in lunar orbit and serve as an essential element of NASA's Artemis missions as astronauts live and work on Gateway to enable sustained exploration and research in deep space their efforts will be made possible not only by Halo but also the power and proportion element a foundational component of the lunar Outpost and the most powerful solar electric spacecraft ever flown PPE will provide Gateway with power and allow it to maintain its unique orbit around the Moon he will generate 60 kilowatts of electrical power which will power gateway subsystems and its solar electric propulsion or SCP system to keep the station in orbit around the Moon the module leverages technology advancements from past successful electric propulsion missions such as the recent Dart mission to help NASA push the boundaries of what's possible in deep space the module's SCP system provides greater fuel economy enabling lower cost missions that can carry more cargo this is because the spacecraft's propellant mask can be reduced by up to 90 by being augmented with the energy from the Sun once deployed ppe's two large yoga mat-like rollout solar arrays which are approximately the size of a football Field's End Zone will generate power to ionize and accelerate xenon gas using a tenth of the propellant required by conventional chemical propulsion systems as the PowerHouse of Gateway the PPE will provide capabilities for high rate Communications between the station the lunar surface and Earth together these two modules will create the first lunar space station and support a long list of future Moon missions that is if everything stays on schedule in the coming years work on the Halo module is turning out to be a bit more complicated than originally thought this has resulted in a new charge to Northrop Grumman and some concerns regarding the future of the program we will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has in the space industry thank you very much for watching foreign

Channel: TheSpaceBucket

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Length: 8min 14sec (494 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 31 2023