NASA has awarded SpaceX with a resupply contract
for the Lunar Gateway.
Built on the foundations of the successful
agreement to resupply the ISS, SpaceX will
employ its Falcon Heavy rocket to launch a
new spacecraft called the Dragon XL to the
lunar outpost under a Gateway Logistics Services
(GLS) contract.
NASA has proposed building a space station
in orbit around the Moon called the Gateway,
where astronauts can train before heading
down to the lunar soil as part of Artemis
program.
Just like the International Space Station,
the Gateway is going to need supplies and
science experiments from time to time, and
now SpaceX is the first commercial company
charged with making that happen.
NASA officials announced Friday (March 27),
SpaceX is guaranteed a minimum of two supply
missions under the Gateway Logistics Services
contract, and the cost of those initial missions
was not revealed by NASA.
The deal gives SpaceX its first major role
in NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to
land astronauts on the moon before the end
of 2024.
NASA envisions the Gateway as a waypoint for
astronauts traveling to the moon, providing
a hub for docking of Orion crew capsules,
lunar landers, and research and logistics
modules.
TheSpaceX Dragon XL, this large cargo vehicle
– which looks more like a large Cygnus XL
vehicle than a traditional Dragon design.
Akin to Dragon missions to the ISS, SpaceX
will use Dragon XL to carry pressurized and
unpressurized cargo, experiments and other
supplies to the Gateway, which will be assembled
in an elliptical, or egg-shaped, orbit around
the moon.
The equipment delivered by SpaceX’s Dragon
XL missions could include sample collection
materials, spacesuits and other items astronauts
may need on the Gateway and on the moon’s
surface, according to NASA.
In this video Engineering Today will discuss
SpaceX Dragon XL which Unveiled as NASA Taps
SpaceX in Lunar Gateway Supply Contract for
Artemis program.
Let’s get into details.
While SpaceX has a long history of launch
resupply missions to the International Space
Station, first with the Cargo Dragon and soon
with its Crew Dragon, the GLS contract has
revealed a new variant of the spacecraft.
The SpaceX Dragon XL missions will launch
on SpaceX Falcon Heavy rockets from pad 39A
at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The first logistics mission to the Gateway
is expected to launch as early as 2024, but
could be delayed as NASA managers re-evaluate
the Gateway’s role in the Artemis program.
In a tweet, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine
said that by structuring the Gateway Logistics
Contract as a public-private partnership,
one in which NASA hires a delivery service
and does not own or operate the hardware,
"we are helping our partners expand the commercial
space economy to the lunar vicinity."
Unlike ISS colleagues, the GLS cargo spacecraft
will aim to stay at the Gateway for a long
duration mission of six to 12 months at a
time, when research payloads inside and outside
the cargo vessel could be operated remotely,
even when crews are not present.
It can carry more than 5 metric tons, or 11,000
pounds, of cargo to the Gateway, according
to SpaceX.
"Returning to the moon and supporting future
space exploration requires affordable delivery
of significant amounts of cargo," SpaceX President
Gwynne Shotwell said in the NASA statement.
"SpaceX has been delivering scientific research
and critical supplies to the space station
since 2012, and we are honored to continue
the work beyond Earth's orbit."
TheSpaceX Dragon XL will dock autonomously
with the Gateway station, using docking and
navigation equipment that fly on the Dragon
2 crew and cargo vehicles.
The SpaceX Dragon XL will ferry equipment
inside and outside the spacecraft.
The SpaceX-built cargo carrier could eventually
deliver a Canadian-built robotic arm to the
Gateway.
“This is an exciting new chapter for human
exploration,” added Mark Wiese, Deep Space
Logistics manager at NASA’s Kennedy Space
Center in Florida.
“We are bringing the innovative thinking
of commercial industry into our supply chain
and helping ensure we’re able to support
crews preparing for lunar surface expeditions
by delivering the supplies they need ahead
of time.”
Mark added, the agency considered selecting
more than one cargo transportation provider
for the Gateway, but eventually settled on
picking a single contractor.
NASA could open up the Gateway Logistics Services
contract to more companies in the future,
but there is no specific timetable to do so,
he said.
NASA is expected to announce at least one
more company that will deliver cargo to the
Gateway.
To that end, the agency set aside a total
of $7 billion (to be spent over a period of
12 to 15 years) for the delivery services.
In an interview, Mark said the initial cargo
missions to the Gateway will deliver supplies
to the station, but won’t return hardware
or lunar samples to Earth.
NASA could add a request for return capability
in the future, he said.
The moon will be a testbed to help the agency
and its partners develop and test the technology
needed for human missions to Mars.
And the Gateway is a big part of that.
The small space station will serve as a command
post for both crewed and uncrewed excursions
to the lunar surface.
The first Artemis lunar landings are targeted
for the moon's South Polar Region, where ice
may be present in permanently shadowed craters.
If found, ice could be used to generate water,
air and oxygen-hydrogen rocket propellants,
saving the cost of transportation from Earth.
NASA bills the Artemis program as a stepping
stone for eventual flights to Mars.
While the GLS contract is a big step for SpaceX
and NASA, a lot of questions remain about
the future of the Artemis program.
For one, it’s unclear when the Gateway will
actually be built.
For the last few years, NASA officials have
argued that building the Gateway is a crucial
part of the Artemis program as it will help
the space agency establish a sustainable presence
around the Moon, rather than just send astronauts
to the lunar surface to leave “flags and
footprints.”
But the Trump administration challenged NASA
to land its first Artemis astronauts by 2024,
and with that deadline quickly approaching,
the space agency may not have enough time
to build the Gateway if it wants to get humans
back to the Moon in the next four years.
Doug Loverro, the associate administrator
for NASA’s human exploration and operations,
said earlier this month that NASA is moving
the Gateway out of the critical path for the
planned 2024 moon landing.
Loverro said earlier this month that there
was a “high possibility” of delays in
the Gateway program, and he added that schedule
slips in the Gateway could force the crewed
lunar landing to miss the 2024 goal.
According NASA, Astronaut crews will make
the trip aboard Lockheed Martin-built Orion
capsules launched to the moon by gargantuan
Space Launch System — SLS — rockets being
built by Boeing.
Under the previous architecture, elements
of a commercially-built lunar lander would
launch on multiple commercial rockets and
rendezvous together for assembly at the Gateway,
then astronauts on the arriving Orion spacecraft
would float into the lander for descent to
the moon’s surface.
NASA earlier awarded a contract to Maxar Technologies
to build the Gateway's solar-electric power
and propulsion element at the end of 2022
and another contract to Northrop Grumman for
a small habitation and logistics outpost,
or HALO in 2023.
Like the ISS, the Gateway will be an international
effort with numerous agencies.
All of the agencies involved with adding elements
to the outpost have ISS partner experience.
Space agencies in Europe, Canada, Japan and
Russia have proposed elements to join the
Gateway, all launching after 2024.
The European Space Agency is expected to contribute
an international habitation module, or IHAB,
and the Canadian space agency is providing
robotic arms, giving the Gateway capability
to host astronauts on the Artemis 3 mission
on the way to the lunar surface.
Both modules are expected to launch on commercially-procured
launch vehicles, ironically with SpaceX’s
Falcon Heavy understood to be leading the
way in during these evaluations.
The Dragon XL will initially dock at the HALO
module shortly before the Artemis 3 mission,
said Dan Hartman, Gateway program manager
at the Johnson Space Center.
He expects the IHAB module to reach Gateway
in the late 2025 timeframe.
NASA says once at full capacity, and with
pre-staged supplies, the Gateway could accommodate
crews for 30 to 60 days.
The Gateway will not be continuously staffed
like the International Space Station.
Instead, crews will rotate to and from the
Gateway for a few weeks at a time.
The Orion spacecraft on the Artemis 3 mission
will use similar elliptical near rectilinear
halo orbit around the moon.
That’s because the Orion spacecraft’s
propulsion system does not have the ability
to insert the capsule into a low-altitude
lunar orbit like that used on the Apollo missions.
NASA envisions Orion crews docking at the
Gateway station in a high orbit, and descending
to the surface from there using commercial
landers and ascent stages that will be assembled
robotically.
The Gateway would be able to change orbits,
bringing virtually any lunar landing site
within reach.
“I do fundamentally believe you cannot do
sustainable presence on the moon without Gateway,”
Loverro said March 13.
“You need an assembly point in the low gravity
well of a near rectilinear halo orbit.
You need an assembly place to go ahead and
bring down the equipment that will be necessary
for extended lunar durations.”
“So there’s no question that Gateway is
part of that plan, and I think what we’re
doing with Gateway makes sure that it does
not get threatened by future cuts — or future
budget overruns, more likely — on human
landers, or Space Launch Systems, and Orion
capsules, and those kind of things,” Loverro
said.
