By akademiotoelektronik, 13/10/2022

NASA: An unprecedented robotic arm will equip the small Gateway lunar station

Pending ESA which should soon unveil the names of the companies that will build the two modules it will make for the Gateway, the Canadian space agency said that MDA would build the robotic system that will equip this small station near the.This new generation Canadarm3 will be able to work in total autonomy and repair certain breakdowns that could affect it.

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The Canadian Space Agency has announced that it wanted to entrust MDA with the realization of the intelligent canadarm3 robotic system which will be installed on the small nasa gateway station.A choice that will not surprise anyone.MDA, Acronym of Macdonald, Dettwiler and Associates, has developed and built Canadarm on board space shuttles and the Canadarm2 and Dextre manipulator currently in service on the International Space Station (ISS)).No delivery date of this system to NASA has been specified.It will depend on the commissioning of the gateway, the date of which has been postponed beyond 2024.

Canadarm3 will be very different from the two previous generations of Spatial Robotics Canadarm.It will not consist of a single arm, but two, including an 8.5 meter large, and a set of specialized tools!The largest arm, which will be the main one, will be used for repairs, outings in space and the mooring of cargoces in particular.As for the smallest, it is intended for more precise and more complex tasks for maintenance operations.

View of the concept of Canadarm3, the Canadian intelligent robotic system that will be on the Gateway.© Canadian Space Agency

This robotic system, thanks to progress in the field of artificial intelligence may ensure its maintenance and itself repair certain previously defined breakdowns.It will also have unprecedented autonomy capacities for a space arm because the gateway will not be permanently occupied.NASA envisages regular stays, with one month of presence on average per year, with stays whose duration would be between 15 days and up to a maximum of 90 days.It is due regularly without the presence of a human crew, unlike the ISS.Given the distance from the Gateway to Earth, more or less 400.000 kilometers, telemanipulation operations will be reserved for very specific tasks because the communications will have a latency of just over a second.

Canadarm3 will be Canada's contribution to the Gateway, piloted by NASA.In exchange for this contribution, Canada expects one of its astronauts to fly on the Gateway during one of the first three inhabited missions.

Voir aussiNasa : la Station lunaire internationale aura du retardPour en savoir plus

Canada will also participate in the small space station near the moon

Article by Rémy Decourt published on 03/14/2019

Canada will provide the small nasa gateway lunar station, the intelligent canadarm3 robotic system.This autonomous system will include a new generation robotic arm, equipment and specialized tools.The explanations of Gilles Leclerc, the director general of space exploration at the Canadian space agency.

Canada and its space agency have formalized their participation in the lunar preposte project that NASA plans to carry out 2025.This small space station will be installed near the moon on a cisluna orbit.Called Gateway, it will be used in particular to prepare the following stages of human exploration of the solar system, from the lunar orbit to that of Mars, from the points of Lagrange to asteroids, in particular.It will also serve as an outpost for robotic expeditions to the moon and later, to transport astronauts.

Unsurprisingly, Canada, which has become the benchmark for spatial robotic arms, will provide the robotic system of this station.Called Canadarm3, he will inherit "almost forty years of Canadian know-how in space robotics", explains Gilles Leclerc, Director General of Spatial Exploration to the Canadian Space Agency.A unique experience in the world that has been built over the "thousands of accumulated hours of orbit operations, such as assembly, repair and support for extravagal outputs".

Thus, Canada made the Télémaripulators Canadarm of the shuttles, the Obss inspection pole "designed after the loss of Columbia to inspect the orbit shuttles" and the mobile maintenance system (MSS)), one of the essential elements of theInternational space station.This element consists of "Canadarm2 (SSRMS: Space Station Remote Manipulator System)), the mobile base (MBS: Mobile Base System)) and the specialized agile manipulator (SPDM: Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator))", more commonly called dexter.

Concept of the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, an outpost of the exploration of the Moon and Mars.© NASA

This third generation of robotic arms will be "very different from Canadarm and Canadarm2".Firstly because "technology has evolved considerably since the 1980s", when these two robotic arms were designed and also because it will have to resist very important levels of radiation, which did not have hadTo worry about Canadarm and Canadarm2 because evolving on low orbits which "benefit from the protection of the terrestrial magnetic field".This future arm will also be lighter, and more compact.The space agency works on the concept of an arm "with a size of 8.5 meters (17 meters for Canadarm2)) and a mass of approximately 715 kilograms (1.5 tonnes for Canadarm2))".Like Canadarm2 with Dextre, Canadarm3 will be "accompanied by a smaller robotic arm (about 1.8 meters)) for finer and precise operations".

This future robotic system will also be "smarter than the generation of the previous arms and capable of performing certain tasks in perfect autonomy".Embedded autonomous modules will allow him to "perceive his environment, to plan his tasks himself".This intelligence and autonomy are a necessity because this lunar station will be, at first, "uninhabited for long periods" and that "the communication times will be longer".

Another peculiarity, while Canadarm on the space shuttle was operated on orbit by astronauts, Canadarm2 by the station crews, operators of the NASA Houston control center and operators of the agency control centerCanadian space in Longueuil, Canada will want to carry out Canadarm3 operations "from Canadian soil".

This arm will be designed for:

Advance and strengthen Canada leadership in space robotics

In a context where scientific and commercial projects to use space, orbit and exploration services must have recourse to “spatial robotics to accomplish various missions, whether it is Rovers playing the role of'Planetary explorers or robots designed to repair and supply satellites and space telescopes ”, this decision to build Canadarm3 also aims to keep Canada world leadership in space robotics.

Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, said that Canada's participation in the Gateway was part of the country's new space strategy, for which he announced an investment of $ 2.05 billion over 24 years.

From Canadarm3, the idea is to derive a variety of robotic arms to meet specific needs such as "boundation of debris, assembly and refueling in orbit", which are seen as "promising markets onwhich wishes to position the Canadian space industry»».


Russia will participate in the small international space station near the moon

Article by Rémy Decourt, published on 02/12/2018

NASA, which wants to win back the moon and send humans to Mars, is aware that it will not be able to do it alone.No offense to President Trump, for mainly cost reasons, she must internationalize her inhabited exploration programs.The lunar outpost, which will be near the moon, will therefore be an international program.If the space agencies of Canada and Europe will obviously be there, although Russia reserves its decision.She does not wish that NASA is the only project manager and leader of this program which will succeed the international space station.

Speaking at a conference celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the launch of the first module of the International Space Station (Unity, in November 1998)), the president of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said he was interested in the American project for creatingThe lunar orbital platform.Called Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G)), this outpost will be installed on a NRHO orbit (Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit)) near the Moon, by 2026.

Although only Canadian and European space agencies have joined this NASA project, the Russians are obviously welcome. D'ailleurs, lors du 68e congrès international d'astronautique, qui s'est tenu à Adélaïde en Australie en septembre 2017, la Nasa et Roscosmos avaient signé une déclaration commune reflétant l'intention des deux agences à collaborer pour mettre en œuvre des initiatives d'exploration spatiale, dont ce fameux avant-poste lunaire.

Nasa : un bras robotique inédit équipera la petite station lunaire Gateway

American pre-publishing concept lunar.@ Nasa

Since then, the relations, already execrable, between the United States and Russia, have certainly continued to deteriorate but, astonishment, spatial cooperation between the two super-power, although it is officially reduced to the strict minimum,not too bad.NASA and the other space agencies obviously have every interest in that Russia participates in this project, in a framework similar to that which allowed the international space station to become the unprecedented political and technological success that we know.For geopolitical, costs and logistics reasons.

The Moon on the Russian program

For the moment, it is too early to know how a Russian participation could materialize in this outpost.You should know that Russia has an ambitious robotic and human exploration program of the moon with, as a highlight, the landing of a inhabited mission by 2030 but also the project of a similar lunar stationin size at the lunar outpost of NASA.However, for obvious reasons of costs, Russia also has every interest in internationalizing this program.Besides, ESA is already participating.It is involved in three Russian robotic missions for the moon!

What can slow down, even prevent Russia from joining the project is NASA's decision to impose American standards on the realization of this outpost.Indeed, due to the small size of the structure and the small number of planned modules, it would have been absurd to use as many construction and use standards as there are partners, as is the caseon the ISS where American, Russian and European standards coexist.

And this is where the bank could hurt.Rogozin said Russia could not participate in the project in conditions subject to NASA decisions alone.


After the ISS: ESA wants to be present on the small international space station near the moon

Article by Rémy Decourt published on 05/09/2018

The European Space Agency has kicked off its participation in the future space station near the Moon by signing, with Thales Alenia Space, the first contracts relating to the study of two elements that Europe will carry out forThis advanced position.This study will allow ESA to present the funding request file to the Member States, at the 2019 ministerial conference.Franco Fenoglio, the director of space transport activities at Thales Alenia Space and Xavier Roser, manager of orbit service activities, also at Thales, explain these two elements.

To succeed the international space station and prepare the first human missions for March, NASA, ESA and the other members of the ISS decided to send a space station to a cisluna orbit.Called Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G)), this outpost will be used as a transit zone for exploration and study of distant space and will serve as a starting point for the inhabited missions around the moon,to Mars and its moons, as well as to asteroids.Unlike the International Space Station (ISS)), permanently occupied by a crew of six astronauts, this outpost will not be permanently inhabited but visited as needed for periods of around 30 to 40 days.It can house a crew of four people, which corresponds to the transport capacities of the NASA Orion vehicle.

A station to prepare the next stages of exploration

This outpost will be installed on an orbit NRHO (Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit)) in the earth-moon, neither circular nor elliptical system, and linked to the points of Lagrange L1 and L2.This position, near the moon, offers enough stable orbits close to the earth to allow a relatively fast back to school in an emergency.It is also located in a spatial environment representative of deep space.It is a good compromise found between proximity to the earth and the moon, test bench for exploration technologies and assembly station for future transport vehicles which will make the long journey towards Mars, for example.

The first element will be launched by 2022-2023;The LOP-G should be completed in 2026-2027 for a contractual lifespan of at least 15 years.Most of the elements will be launched by the SLS (Space Launch System)) launcher of NASA, such as the inhabited flights of the Orion capsule.Commercial launches are also planned, including cargoos for logistics services (food, water, parts, etc..)).

Although the participation of the European Space Agency in this outpost will be decided at the end of 2019, during the session of its council at ministerial level, ESA has just signed with Thales Alenia Space contracts for preliminary design studiesSAS Scientific Spirit and the I-HA Module, two elements of the LOP-G program.This phase, A/B1 in ESA jargon, is very important.It will allow ESA to present the funding request file to the Member States to the 2019 ministerial.

Lunar Advanced Post Concept, studied by Lockheed Martin and Thales Alenia Space.© Lockheed Martin

For the moment, these are studies of "feasibility and definition of technical data which must lead to a preliminary design of the two elements", explains Franco Fenoglio, the director of habited space transport activities at Thales Alenia SpaceItaly.This phase makes it possible to fix the "main technical options, the development plan and the costs as well as the specifications of subsystems and equipment".It also makes it possible to finalize the choice of the industrial team.This phase, sanctioned by a Preliminary Design Review, is planned to last until the fall of 2019, the date on which the ESA "will decide, during the ministerial conference at the end of 2019, if it finances the construction of these two elements".

"The heritage of the space station will be very present in the production of the I-HAB residential module", wishes to specify Franco Fenoglio and to recall that Thales Alenia Space is the "second supplier of ISS modules after Boeing".The previous developments of Thales Alenia Space for the space station will therefore "serve as a starting point for the realization of the elements of this lunar station", complete specific needs and specific to the LOP-G program.

One of the most important challenges is "reduction in mass".These mass gains are "highly sought after, because it is much more expensive to transfer 1 kg to lunar orbit than on the low orbit of the ISS".But, as around the moon there is no debris, it "is possible to play on the thickness of the materials and on the parts which will serve in docking which will be smaller so lighter".The American shuttle is no longer in service, it will also be necessary to "take into account the performance and skills of the NASA SLS which will be used to launch the elements of the LOP-G".The mass at the launch of LOP-G elements must be as low as possible, which will involve using "lighter structures, both for pressure shells, for example by reducing their thickness, as for the internal secondary structures whichwill accommodate equipment»».

Cela explique pourquoi la masse du module d'habitation I-HAB, inspiré « pour la forme et la masse des nœuds de jonction (les nodes)), et que nous avons réalisé pour l'ISS»», sera inférieure à neuf tonnes maximum, contre 14 tonnes pour le module de jonction numéro 3.Another strong constraint, the architecture of this module should be very functionality and take into account "accommodation solutions promoting more comfortable habitable interiors".If the ISS has several modules offering the "possibility of moving, delivering and working in each of them", the LOP-G will be smaller.It is therefore important to focus on the "human factors" aspects and be able to "provide more habitable parts", and already prepare "future modules that will then be part of the long journey to Mars" in which the'crew will remain in the same module up to 1.000 days.Hence the need to start to design "more comfortable modules for the crew, in more limited spaces to which astronauts are used".

As for the scientific airlock, which can be pressured and depressed, its goal is to recover useful charges or experiences that would arrive at the station by pressurized cargoos and install them outside the station thanks to the armrobotics that will be provided by Canada.He "works a bit like a Torpille tube," explains Xavier Roser, manager of orbit service activities at Thales Alenia Space.This SAS mainly combines functions that rely on a "legacy of the pressurized modules produced by Thales Alenia Space for the ISS".

Esprit is also equipped with "propulsion, planeic and interplanetary telecommunications subsystems to allow communications between earth, moon and station" which are the heritage of technological bricks developed to orbit theMission Exomars 2016, also developed by Thales Alenia Space.


After the ISS, a small international space station near the moon

Article by Rémy Decourt published on 04/30/2018

NASA wants to win back the moon and send humans to Mars.The 2019 budget makes it possible to place the first orders to the industry next year with the aim of launching in 2022 the first element of this space station, which will rather, in fact, an advanced exploration position.As for the role of the European space agency, Bernardo Patti, the director of exploration, explains it to us..

In the United States, the renewed interest in the moon is confirmed.Pushed by the Trump administration and a good budget, NASA has just announced that the first contracts for the future advanced lunar position of the exploration would be signed in 2019.These first contracts will concern the equipment necessary for future modules of this advanced position.

Cet avant-poste de l'exploration situé à proximité de la Lune, récemment rebaptisé Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G)), sera utilisé comme zone de transit pour l'exploration et l'étude de l'espace lointain.It will serve as a starting point for the missions inhabited around the Moon, to Mars and its moons, as well as to asteroids.Note that NASA has not explicitly talked about sending humans to the moon.

This advanced position is dimensioned for a crew of four people - the transport capacity of the Orion vehicle - for stays of three months maximum, at least at the start of the use of this structure.Longer durations are envisaged but they will depend on the responses given to the problem of radiation and freight refueling of the crews on board.

Did you know ?

NASA will not remove the space station as long as the advanced exploration position, the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, will be in service with a degree of advanced assembly.It is a very strong signal sent to the program partners and users of the station, which suggests that it will be used beyond half of the 2020s.

NASA has indeed regretted having put back the space shuttles without spatial transport vehicle.Indeed, since the last flight of Atlantis, in July 2011, NASA depends on Russia to send its astronauts aboard the ISS.The situation could last one or two more years if Boeing and SpaceX fail to fly their space vehicle by the end of the year.

Strictly speaking, it will not be a space station, but rather a vessel that will have the ability to navigate.This orbital outpost will allow "see how it can withstand robotic and inhabited lunar missions and will help us develop a vehicle to explore Mars with humans", explained to us in September 2017 Frank de Winne, advisor to the director of habited flightsand operations at ESA and director of the European Center for Astronauts.

Cet avant-poste sera installé sur une orbite NRHO (Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit)), un type d'orbite de halo dans le système Terre-Lune, ni circulaire ni elliptique, et lié aux points de Lagrange L1 et L2.If the Delta V to get to know this station is not very interesting, such an orbit has several assets.First, it is stable, always exposed to the sun and visible permanently from the moon and the earth, which will facilitate communications.In the longer term, this orbit could also be used for large space telescopes, to transmit, relay information, etc..It is therefore a bet on the future.

La Nasa prévoit de lancer le premier élément de ce poste avancé, le module PPE (Power Propulsion Element)), en 2022 et de terminer son assemblage dès 2025.© SSL

ESA will be present on this outpost

The participation of the European Space Agency in this outpost "will be decided at the end of 2019, during the ESA council session at the ministerial level", explains Bernardo Patti, the director of exploration programs at ESA.The agreement reached with NASA "on the role that ESA could play and what it could provide will be proposed to our Member States during this session".

This agreement concerns "the supply of a certain number of service modules for the Orion vehicle as well as two major elements of this advanced position: the dwelling module and the spirit module".Esprit is "an undeffressed module that will house communication easements with the Moon, the Earth and the vehicles approaching".It will also embark the xenon and hydrazine tanks.It will also be equipped with a SAS, but not for astronauts ".This passage will only be used for the transfer of scientific experiences or technological demonstrations of the pressurized part of the advanced post to the unpurred part.

As for the residential module, called International Housing Module, ESA will be "the project manager and the integrator of the various equipment that the other partners of the program will provide". Le mécanisme européen d'amarrage IBDM (International Berthing and Docking Mechanism)) « sera proposé à la Nasa»».This mooring system has the distinction of being the first designed according to standards common to all partner space agencies of the ISS program, so as to have a common mooring interface, which is notThe case today.It will equip the cargo and inhabited version of the Dream Chaser.

The participation of ESA in this space station will be done according to "a different diagram from that of the international space station".Today, the financing of the use of the station is done as part of the "Barter Agreement", a system set up by the partners of the ISS where everyone finances its share of the use of the station by theSupply of a service of the same amount as its contribution.Until 2017, ESA has paid its expenses with ATV missions.For the period 2017-2020, ESA pays its "rent" to NASA by funding the development of the future NASA space exploration of the future NASA space exploration of the future.

As part of the LOP-G, no rent to pay: "ESA becomes a shareholder in the structure in a way".Concretely, each partner makes a contribution and on the basis of this contribution is entitled in return to profits which can be thefts and stays of astronauts, mooring slots or use of installations for example ".


After the ISS, NASA plans a space station near the moon

Article by Rémy Decourt published on 09/18/2017

Pour préparer l'exploration humaine de la Lune, de Mars, voire d'un astéroïde, les partenaires de la Station spatiale internationale (ISS)) réfléchissent à envoyer un avant-poste à proximité de la Lune.This Deep Space Gateway would be more a vehicle than a space station. Les explications avec Frank De Winne, ancien astronaute de l'Agence spatiale européenne (ESA)) et directeur du Centre européen des astronautes.

Près de vingt ans après le lancement du premier module de la Station spatiale internationale (ISS)), Zarya, en novembre 1998, l'Agence spatiale européenne (ESA)) et les autres partenaires du programme réfléchissent à des projets pour succéder à cette station située à 400 kilomètres d'altitude et qui a si bien rapproché les communautés de scientifiques et d'ingénieurs de nombreux pays.

"With all the partners, we look at how, in the near future, we can serve the low and beyond orbit," explains Frank de Winne, advisor to the director of inhabited flights and operations at ESA and directorfrom the European Center for Astronauts.The idea that prevails today is a "gateway to deep space [Deep Space Gateway, in English]".

It will not be a space station, but rather a "vehicle that will have the capacity to navigate".This orbital outpost will allow "see how this vehicle can withstand robotic and inhabited lunar missions and will help us develop a vehicle to explore Mars with humans".It will be installed near the moon, on an orbit which is not yet specified.

American concept of a Deep Space Gateway near the Moon.© NASA, Boeing

Deep Space Gateway, an outpost of spatial exploration

This gateway to deep space is not an officially approved program.For the moment, "these are only very preliminary studies". Les équipes de l'ESA travaillent autour d'une configuration minimale et très basique composée de trois modules avec un diamètre identique à celui de l'ISS (4,5 mètres)) : on comptera « un module de vie, un de service et le module de propulsion qui sera électrique»».This future vehicle will have at least two mooring ports using "a standard common to all partner space agencies of the ISS program for the mooring of space vehicles".ESA could offer the standardized mooring port which it currently develops with the Belgian company Qinetiq Space NV. Ce standard (International Docking System Standard ou IDSS)) devrait également être adopté par la Russie et le secteur privé, ce qui laisse penser qu'il deviendrait une norme internationale.Finally, this vehicle will be served by the Orion vessel, of NASA, "in which ESA participates by providing the service module" and which can transport four astronauts.The accommodation capacity of the Deep Space Gateway will also be four astronauts since it will be "dimensioned according to the transport capacities of the Orion vehicle".

With a total mass of less than 20 tonnes, comparing with the 400 tonnes of the ISS, this Deep Space Gateway could be "assembled in orbit in just four launches".The construction of this outpost of exploration could begin in "the first part of the 2020s", which would require that the ministers of the ESA member states "authorize [the latter] to participate in this program" duringThe ESA Council session at the ministerial level which will meet in 2019.

This program will be international.For the moment, ESA has not yet decided what will be "its role [...] but different options are being studied ”.The agency has shown its interest in "electric propulsion, life support systems and telecommunications". Forte d'un héritage significatif, avec des programmes emblématiques du savoir-faire de l'industrie spatiale européenne (comme « le module Columbus, le Spacehab des navettes ou encore le véhicule automatique ATV»»)), l'ESA voudra « capitaliser sur ce qu'elle sait faire»».

The uncertain future of the ISS

As for the international space station, its "end of life is scheduled for 2024, or even 2028".The program partners obviously do not intend to leave the low orbit and all "have the will to maintain a human presence there".Again, several scenarios are being studied, including an "extension of the station which could be done within the framework of a partnership with the private sector".

Like NASA, ESA is ready to support "marketing of low orbit so as to stimulate its space industrial sector".It also does not exclude using private services for supplying this Deep Space Gateway."We will be open to the best options that will present themselves when the time comes.»»


After-Isson: A future station close to the moon?

Article by Rémy Decourt published on 09/16/2016

What will the ISS partner spatial agencies do when the station, at the end of the service, will be precipitated in the atmosphere, probably by 2028?All want to continue a collaboration of the same kind, which has so closely brought the communities of scientists and engineers from many countries.One of the hypotheses is that of another station, perhaps in lunar orbit, which would be used for distant explorations and permanent activities, maintenance services for spacecraft or tourist stays...

In recent years, discussions have been intensifying on projects that will succeed the international space station.The idea is less to define a roadmap than to study the best way to use the financial resources of space agencies in this historic program when it has ended.Eighteen years after the launch of the first module, Zarya, in November 1998, it is planned to descend it in 2024, or even 2028.The program partners gave their agreement to exploit it until 2024, with the exception of the European Space Agency which will rule in December, during the next session of its ministerial council.

The station may not be a great scientific success but, since 2012, it has offered a large part of the potential for which it has been designed.This international achievement is above all an unprecedented political and technological success.Initiated during the Cold War, this project allowed the United States to delight the Russians the first place in the field of the exploitation of the low-land orbit and to maintain whole sections of the Russian space industry.Technically, it is also a unique and successful example of international cooperation which has enabled the merger of working methods and very different standards.

Concept of space habitat, near the moon, around which NASA and ESA work.© NASA, ESA

From the Moon to Mars

Despite political tensions between Russia and other nations, cooperation between space agencies is doing well.Recently, NASA and Roscosmos met to discuss the future of this program and the continuation to give it.And there is no shortage of ideas.In the private sector as in the audience, we work on this new conquest of space and each scaffolds his strategy and his scenarios of missions, like Elon Musk who promises a colonization of.

Among the hypotheses studied, one stands out from the peloton: install a space station near the moon that could serve as a platform for exploring our natural satellite but also a springboard for inhabited missions to March orasteroids.This station would therefore be more like an advanced exploration position.It will have mooring ports responding to the same international standard, which will allow it to accommodate space vehicles from all countries.It will be used to maintain orbital modules and vehicles, assembly and repair of vehicles that will go beyond the moon.A segment of this station could be reserved for the private sector for the marketing of scientific, research and space tourism activities.

In the future, man could establish himself permanently on lunar soil but also settle in lunar orbit.ESA is placed on this double strategy.© ESA, Foster Partners

ESA imagines a space hub

Absent from this meeting, the European space agency also has its idea on this subject.She studies the interest of a habitable space station, smaller than the ISS and located at the point of Lagrange L2 of the earth-moon system.Served by the inhabited oron vehicle of NASA, in which ESA participates by providing the service module, it would not be permanently occupied.

This distant station would be inhabited by astronauts for durations which would remain limited at first.It could for example be used to tele-operate robotic missions on the surface of the moon.This stop could also be used during transits of samples taken from the solar system before being descended on earth. Elle serait aussi une sorte de « hub»» pour les astronautes qui se rendraient sur la Lune.

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