NASA has selected Maxar Technologies for a #375 million contract to design, build and launch the core module of the mini-station in orbit around the moon that will double as a deep space research outpost and a staging point for the future human expedition to the lunar surface.
If you are not familiar with Maxar Technologies, here's what you need to know.
Maxar Technologies Inc. is a space technology company headquatered in Westminster, Colorado, United States, specilizing in manufacturing communication, Earth observation, radar, and on-orbit servicing satellites, satellite products and related services. In October 2017, DigitalGlobe and MDA Holdings Company merged to become Maxar Technologies. Its most visible products include the Canadarm used on the NASA's Space Shuttle, as well as the Canadarm2 and Dextre remote manupulator systems used on the International Space Station.
Fitted with high-power xenon thrusters and huge roll-out solar panels, the module will become the centerpiece of NASA's planned Lunar Gateway Station in the lunar orbit. NASA also plans to add a small pressurized habitat or a utilization module to the Gateway before assembling components of a lunar lander there ahead of a human landing on the moon as early as 2024.
The Lunar Gateway Station is a small space station that will put in orbit around the moon. It will also be a reusable command and service module that will be in orbit around the moon for 15 years, and the first element is the Power and Propulsion Element.
The Gateway will serve as an operations base and safe haven for astronauts heading to the lunar surface, NASA says, and the Power and Propulsion Element or PPE, will carry substantial maneuvering capabilities to change orbits, enabling the crews to depart the station to reach any part of the moon, such as a South pole where measurements suggest water ice is present in permanently-shadowed craters.
NASA officials also says that some pieces of the original Gateway concept, such as an airlock to support spacewalks, a refueling module provided by the European Space Agency, a Canadian-built robotic arm, and a possible Japanese contribution will be deferred in favor of building a minimal station by 2024.
The Gateway's first element will launch on a commercial rocket by the end of 2022, followed by the launch of the station's first pressurized segment in 2023, also on a commercial rocket. The pressurized utilization module would have multiple docking ports to connect with the PPE, a lunar lander and visiting Orion crew capsules.
According to NASA’s current plan, commercial rockets would launch two or three pieces of a human-rated lunar lander that will be integrated at the Gateway in time for a 2024 landing attempt.
The astronauts that would land on the moon in 2024 would fly on the third tandem mission of NASA’s government-managed Space Launch System, an oft-delayed heavy-lift rocket now scheduled for its first launch no earlier than late 2020, and the Orion crew ferry craft.
NASA has named the accelerated lunar landing program Artemis, goddess of the moon and sister of Apollo in Greek mythology.
Under current plans, the Artemis 1 mission, formerly named Exploration Mission 1, will be the inaugural flight of the Space Launch System with the Orion crew capsule on an unpiloted flight to lunar orbit and back to Earth. After the Artemis 1 mission as soon as late 2020, the first SLS/Orion mission with astronauts would launch in late 2022 on a trip around the moon and back.