NASA Shapes Science Plan for Deep-Space Outpost Near the Moon

space.com ^

[BenLurkin]

NASA is pressing forward on plans to build a Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, an outpost for astronauts positioned in the space near Earth's moon.

According to NASA, the Gateway will not only be a place to live, learn and work around the moon but will also support an array of missions to the lunar surface. And scientists foresee a host of uses for the station.

By making use of a suite of instruments housed on or inside the structure itself, or free-flying nearby, scientists could make Earth and solar observations. They could also carry out astrophysics and fundamental physics experiments.

...

Don't think of the Gateway as International Space Station 2.0.

"It's a lot smaller," Bussey said, and would be an uncrewed platform that has a crew once a year.

The Gateway could be parked in what scientists call a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO), an orbit in cislunar space that could serve as a staging area for future missions.

Such orbits, which make close passes by the moon and loop far out, have the advantage of being near the moon, but always keep a station within the line of sight of flight controllers on Earth, as well as in sunlight for solar arrays.

"It ends up being a very interesting orbit," Bussey said, with NRHOs now seen as a viable candidate for long-term cislunar operations and aggregation.

[BenLurkin]

Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO)

[Trevieze]

Looks painful......

[oh8eleven]

Oh great, another multi billion dollar boondoggle like the Space Shuttle that taxpayers will be forced to fund.
Sorry, but it's time to put NASA out of business.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Will this make Muslims feel better about themselves? “Nearer, my Moon God, to thee?”

Or, is NASA under new management?

[wattsgnu]

I wonder if they could just re-purpose the ISS for this. Boost it over there. Why build something new?

[cgbg]

Cis-lunar—is that one of those politically-correct gender thingies?

[Alas Babylon!]

Why not use one of the Lagrangian Points?

A Lagrange point is a location in space where the combined gravitational forces of two large bodies, such as Earth and the sun or Earth and the moon, equal the centrifugal force felt by a much smaller third body.

No worries about losing the altitude, orbital track or moving.

[DannyTN]

sounds painful too.

[rfp1234]

Wait until they try it on Uranus...

[Campion]

The NRHO is apparently a specific type of Langrange point orbit.

[NorthMountain]

Let’s get rid of the real mulit-hundred-billion dollar boondoggles: SNAP, TANF, WIC, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security ... then we can start worrying about the small stuff like NASA.

[oh8eleven]

How big of you to lump the Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security programs in with the endless welfare programs designed specifically for the Takers of Society. I worked my arse off from 1964 to 2007 and I had no choice but to pay into Medicare and SS. But at least when I (and millions like me) needed them, they were there, i.e. a payback.
I'll concede Man on the Moon was a great scientific endeavor - worth the money. But we went, we saw, we left ... and that should have been it ... but no, we got the Space Shuttle ... 30 years worth.
You tell me WTF we got out of the Space Shuttle program (other than 14 dead astronauts) for our "investment" of $196 billion? Talk about a boondoggle.
You want to explore space, pay for it yourself.

[NorthMountain]

Wah. Wah. Wah.

Socialist Insecurity is a colossal boondoggle, a gross abuse of Constitution, and a complete waste of OUR MONEY taken from us at gunpoint and immediately given to others. We need to end it, gracefully, before it crashes. NASA is small potatoes by comparison.

NASA's budget of $18 billion is a tiny sliver in the blue wedge.

Consider yourself slapped in the face with reality.

Good Day.

[PIF]

I Think your answer is here: “... but always keep a station within the line of sight of flight controllers on Earth ...” ‘controllers’ being the operative word.