NASA's Gateway: An Update on Progress and Plans for Extending Human Presence to Cislunar Space

Abstract

As reflected in NASA's Exploration Campaign, the next step in human spaceflight is the development and deployment of a deep space Gateway – a cislunar outpost to advance America's human return to the surface of the Moon, and drive exploration and science activity in deep space. Together with the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion, the Gateway is central to advancing and sustaining human space exploration goals, and is the unifying single stepping off point in our architecture for human cislunar operations, lunar surface access and missions to Mars. NASA will lead this next step and will serve as the integrator of the spaceflight capabilities and contributions of U.S. commercial partners and international partners to develop the Gateway. Through partnerships both domestic and international, the Gateway team will bring innovation and new approaches to the advancement of U.S. Government, industry and global spaceflight goals and objectives. The Gateway will be developed in a manner that will allow future capabilities and collaborations with U.S. Government, private sector companies, and international partners. The current Gateway concept distributes necessary functions across Gateway, including: power and propulsion (and communication), habitation/utilization, logistics resupply, airlock, and robotics. The functional goal is to develop an effective habitation/utilization capability comprised of pressurized volume(s) with integrated habitation systems and components, docking ports, environmental control and life support systems (ECLSS), avionics and control systems, radiation mitigation and monitoring, fire safety systems, autonomous capabilities, utilization, and crew health capabilities, including exercise equipment. Studies of the architecture trade space and potential Gateway configurations have revealed a baseline concept that can satisfy the aforementioned functions as well as achieve U.S. and international partner objectives. Through analysis, several Gateway configurations were identified that could meet these functions and objectives to varying degrees. This paper will provide an update on the Gateway configuration including U.S. and international element partners, status of acquisition activities, progress of the Power and Propulsion Element development; and updates on plans for Gateway utilization activity planning.