NASA is looking for partners in the American industry to create a partially reusable manned lender

According to NASA, a fully assembled lunar orbital platform (Gateway) should look like this.

Now, in fact, the news itself, published on the NASA website:

Feb. 7, 2019
Reusable Systems for Land Astronauts on Moon

Demonstration of the Demonstration 13 companies and companies on the lunar surface. It is a scaffolding from the beginning of the 20th century.
He was a multi-phased lunar exploration partnership.

“If you’re in the world?”, We’ll expand our partnership with the United States. “When we send astronauts on the next decade, it will be a sustainable fashion.”

This is the most important element of the transport system. This is a gateway to the moon.

Using the Gateway to Land for Astronauts on the Moon permits the use of building blocks for fully reusable lunar landers. It will be reusable and will be refrained from the ground. Rocket propellants using water is also working. Once the ability to propellant becomes harder, it’s not possible. This process, known as in-situ resource utilization or ISRU , will also be refuelable and reusable.

NASA ( Broadcasting Announcement (BAA) on Feb. 7, and responses are due March 25.

For us, the most interesting information is contained in the three slides that make up the Attachment_A _-_ Reference_Architecture.pdf file, published on February 7

Here we see three stages of the creation of the Gateway (for simplicity, I will call it LOC (Lunar Orbital Station or Gateway) and parallel testing of the elements of a manned Lander. It must be borne in mind that the concept is still evolving, moreover, the timeline is clearly floating.



This is the first stage, according to the plan it is 2024. By this moment, the “The Power and Propulsion Element (PPE)” delivered by the Senate Lunch System, weighing 8–9 metric tons, equipped with solar batteries capable of providing its 50 kW ion engines, should already be in a circumlunar orbit. The PPE is supposed to mount the Advanced Electric Propulsion System (AEPS) , which includes four ion engines.

According to the plan in 2024, two modules should be delivered to the near-moon station, using SLS, in parallel with Orion, The European System Providing Reflection, Infrastructure and Telecommunications (ESPRIT) and The US Utilization Module. The European module ESPRIT will provide additional stock of xenon and hydrazine, additional communications equipment and a gateway for scientific packages, as well as the possibility to refuel PPE. It will have a mass of about 4 tons and a length of about four meters. The American module will provide the first, still small, living space. It is planned that both of these modules will be delivered to the Gateway during the EM3 expedition, with the participation of four astronauts and a duration of up to 26 days.

In addition, in 2024, it is planned to test the first element of the Lender, the landing stage, which should be delivered to the Gateway using a commercial carrier, and land on the lunar surface.



According to the plans, by the end of 2026 Gateway should receive one more residential module from the States and the second from partners, their delivery should be made with the help of SLS during the expeditions EM4 and EM5. All three residential modules will provide stations with 125 cubic meters of residential volume.

For 2026, a full-fledged test of a partially reusable lender in unmanned mode is planned. To do this, a new landing platform and the reusable Venice Element must be delivered to Gateway by two flights of commercial rockets. With the next Orion flight, a reusable Lunar Ascent Element will be delivered to the Gateway, the takeoff cabin of the Lender. Thus, after assembly, during an unmanned flight, the Lender will be fully tested in automatic mode, simulating the real landing of astronauts on the lunar surface.



By 2028, the creation of the Gateway should be largely completed. The latest permanent module in its composition should be a lock module, the construction of which was negotiated with Roskosmos. This year, according to the plan, the new filled landing stage and fuel for refueling reusable lender modules should be delivered by three flights of commercial carriers. After that, the landing of four astronauts on the surface of the moon is planned.



This is a diagram of the lunar Gateway, as it appears at the moment. It should be borne in mind that some of the modules presented in the diagram are not part of the station. So the Sample Return Venice is actually a small independent unmanned lander, and the module under the letter G, “Logistics and Utilization” is actually a cargo module of a transport ship, roughly the same as Signus.