NASA PICKS SPACEX TO LAUNCH CREW QUARTERS OF LUNAR GATEWAY STATION

Futurism ^ | February 10 2020 | VICTOR TANGERMANN

[SmokingJoe]

SPACEX WILL LAUNCH THE PART OF THE STATION WHERE THE ASTRONAUTS WILL ACTUALLY LIVE. NASA Lunar Gateway NASA has chosen SpaceX to launch the first parts of the Lunar Gateway, a crewed outpost about a tenth the size of the International Space Station. The plan is for it to orbit the Moon — where it will be a stepping stone for future Artemis missions to the lunar surface.

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy, a reusable heavy-lift rocket that has only launched three times since 2018, will carry NASA’s Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) from launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida no sooner than May 2024, according to the agency.

It’s a major coup for SpaceX — which will get paid a whopping $331.8 million for the project — and potentially a huge step toward sending humans back to the Moon.

Stepping Stone The PPE is a spacecraft that will allow the outpost to communicate with the Earth, control attitudes, and push the Gateway into various lunar orbits.

ADVERTISEMENT HALO is where astronauts will actually spend time while waiting to get down to the lunar surface. It will also serve as the docking hub and support science investigations as well as supplementing life support systems aboard Orion, the agency’s spacecraft designed to ferry astronauts to the Gateway.

[SmokingJoe]

Falcon Heavy is the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. With the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lb) Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy. Falcon Heavy is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft.

[Shadylake]

Really hoping and praying biden doesn’t cancel all this, but he probably will.

[SmokingJoe]

By comparison, the Starship Super Heavy rocket have up to 37 much more powerful Raptor (not Merlin) engines, with another 6 vacuum optimized Raptors in the Starship itself.

[Hazwaste]

Agreed. Total waste of time when NASA’s primary mission is muslim outreach.

[SmokingJoe]

Right now, Musk is too rich to be canceled by anybody.
He can sell Tesla stock and finance SpaceX all by himself without even bothering to raise further venture capital if he wants to.

[KC_Lion]

So cool!

CCP backed Biden will do everything to kill this project.

[dsrtsage]

“Really hoping and praying biden doesn’t cancel all this, but he probably will.”

The money can be better spent fighting climate change or purchasing iPhones for Crack Whores Squirting Out Babies Democrat voters

[SmokingJoe]

The money can be better spent fighting climate change or purchasing iPhone's for Crack Whores Squirting Out Babies Democrat voters

Don't foret the BLM terrorists. After sealing millions of IPhone's during the BLM riots, looting and anarchy, Dementia Joe may very well just give them even more IPhone's for free.

[SmokingJoe]

Agreed. Total waste of time when NASA's primary mission is muslim outreach.

Don't forget climate change.

[PIF]

Muslim outreach has been canceled; its now Chinese outreach - can’t have Uyghurs being part of NASA.

[BobL]

Probably a death-blow to SLS...

[SmokingJoe]

Not necessarily. NASA needs to start building the Gateway before the SLS is ready, which won’t be for a while. Falcon Heavy is the most powerful rocket in existence right now.

[cgbg]

The rockets are fine, but they had better do some serious research to make sure the Gateway can handle all kinds of space radiation and other dangers (from all over the electro-magnetic spectrum) of a _long-term_ orbiting system around the moon.

There will not be _any_ atmosphere to protect it, so this is _totally_ untested technology.

[SmokingJoe]

I doubt if there is much difference between the Gateway orbiting the Moon and the current International Space Station that has been orbiting the earth for a very long time as far as radiation etc are concerned.

[cgbg]

There is a big difference—but the space explorers are going to have to learn that the hard way...

The Earth is protected by magnetic fields that protect the planet. The moon has no such protection.

The Space Station is below and is protected by much of the Earth’s magnetic field.

[SmokingJoe]

There is a big difference—but the space explorers are going to have to learn that the hard way...

Chuckle.
You seem to forget that NASA actually landed on the Moon as far back as 50 years ago, had SIX missions land on the moon awith 12 astronauts walking on the moon and has been studying the Moon for as long as there has been a NASA and even before that.
You talk like NAS doesn't know anything about the moon. They know pretty much everything about the Mona that they need to know in order to establish a Gateway to the Moon and a base on the moon itself.

The Earth is protected by magnetic fields that protect the planet. The moon has no such protection.

Now why don't we go back to Sir Isaac Newton's equation for gravity which has three variables; masses of two objects, the distance between them, and force F itself; which we called gravity along with gravitation constant G.

And that equation is

F = Gm1m2/r2

It does not matter how apart things are, gravitation force of any objects always exist, that force never goes to zero.

The Space Station is below and is protected by much of the Earth's magnetic field.

These are astronauts on the Space Station:. Oh wait, they are floating.

[cgbg]

Here is a seven minute video of a NASA astronaut discussing the Orion project—he understands the dangers of _long-term_ radiation outside the Earth’s magnetic field:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O5dPsu66Kw

[pas]

All this while JPL has whined about not being able to do global warming.

[PreciousLiberty]

I think you’re conflating gravity and magnetism... Also, an interesting thing is that the gravity field at the ISS is almost as strong as on the ground. That’s why “freefall” is a better term than “zero-g”.

[SmokingJoe]

Are there dangers in going to space?
O course there is.
Going to space always has dangers. Going to the Moon in 1969 had plenty of dangers but NASA Neil Armstrong etc still diid it anyway, were very successful and the astronauts came back to earth safely and lived very long happy lives after that.
The point is NASA and other countries has steadied the Moon more than any other object in space. They are not starting a Moon Gateway just based on knowing nothing the moon. They are doing it based on deep knowledge acquired over decades.