People were one step closer to the dream of a human habitation near the moon on September 27, when NASA and Roscosmos approved a joint plan for future space exploration. Their project, which will be a continuation of the International Space Station (ISS), involves placing an object in orbit between the Earth and the Moon, in lunar space. In it, the defendants see the cornerstone of deep space exploration, and call it: Deep Space Gateway, literally "a portal to deep space."
NASA's new heavyweight rocket, the Space Launch System, which is still in development, will enable the construction of the DSG. It will be helped by slightly less powerful, but already proven Russian missiles "Proton-M" and "Angara". This partnership should not be viewed as tied to only two participants, since three other partners of the ISS (Europe, Japan and Canada) will also be involved with a high degree of probability.
Since Apollo 17 returned from the moon in 1972, no human has moved further from home than to “low earth orbit,” which is 400 kilometers in the case of the ISS.
Construction of the ISS began in 1998, and the station has been regularly visited by crews since November 2000. Previously, the project was planned to be supported until 2020, but it was extended until 2024 and may be extended further. But the ISS is aging - and many argue that it should have been replaced long ago. Today the station is valued at $ 150 billion, expressed in the cost of building and maintaining the station over so many years. It's not cheap, but humanity spent about the same amount on lipstick over the same 20-year period.
We can expect a comparable or higher price when evaluating the DSG project, which will begin assembling in mid-2020, if, of course, NASA can get its SLS rocket on its feet in time, despite the funding difficulties.
Orbits
Promotional video:
The name DSG is due to the fact that the station will be located outside the deepest part of the Earth's gravity well, the strongest part of the planet's gravitational field, which means less energy will be needed to launch a mission from there. Such a station would be an excellent starting point for expeditions to the surface of the Moon and even Mars. It would also be convenient to study samples on it (and quarantine them for planetary security) brought from Mars and other bodies.
Unlike the ISS, DSG will not be permanently inhabited. This plan calls for one annual 42-day team visit of four members to start. When the station is empty, the instruments on the DSG will continue to collect valuable scientific data, especially on the approach to the Moon. The station will be located not in a low lunar orbit, but at special points in space, where the gravitational attraction between the Earth and the Moon is balanced. This will allow the station to follow a close-to-rectilinear halo orbit. From the point of view of the Moon, the DSG will approach the same pole multiple times, offering excellent opportunities for scientific measurements.
The rest of the time, DSG will be farther from the Moon in a halo orbit relative to the position of the Moon-Earth line at the L2 Lagrange point. The balance of gravitational forces in it allows the spacecraft to be “parked” for observation.
However, these orbits are only quasi-stable, so adjustments will be required to maintain DSG in these locations so that the station does not drift away. The Canadian Space Agency is proposing to use solar sail for these purposes, not fuel. The idea is great, because solar sails, receiving a pulse from radiation, have not yet been really tested - so we will test them at the same time. In addition to using them when maneuvering around the solar system, solar sails may one day be able to push probes towards other stars.
Competition
DSG is still very far from reality. However, this is the logical next step after the ISS - and any long-term multinational cooperative venture in space should be beneficial, given the divisions between nations on Earth. Perhaps we will not get to Mars as quickly as we would like, because government-funded projects are often limited in finance and private enterprises can overtake them well. Take the same Big Fucking Rocket by Elon Musk. And this is only his first step. Speaking at the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, he revealed his ambitious plans for a lunar base, followed by rockets to Mars by 2022.
In whatever form this happens, there is no doubt that the lunar base will inspire astronauts and cosmonauts to fly beyond low Earth orbit. A reusable station like DSG somewhere near the Moon will offer many ways to study both the Moon and the Earth with the Sun.
Ilya Khel
