The Case Against the Lunar Orbital Platform - Gateway

In November, 2017, NASA proposed a lunar orbiting space station, originally called the Deep Space Gateway, now the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway.? This space station is to orbit the Moon, with a range of 1500 to 70,000 kilometers (930 to 43,000 miles) above the lunar surface.? One orbit would last for six days, and this is known as the Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit.

The following modules proposed for the Gateway are:

1. A combined Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO), are the core modules, that will both generate electricity for both the station and propulsion system, with the propulsion system controlling the altitude and orbit of the station in any and all directions and configurations and provide habitation for the astronauts.? This core will also provide maintenance facilities, communications to and from the Moon, and support of astronaut extravehicular activities (EVA), along with docking nodes for refueling, deep space navigation, and adding new modules.? These is to be the first modules to be placed in lunar orbit, with coming attachments of other modules.
2. A second habitation module has been proposed for international partners.
3. A logistics module, for cargo delivery, zero gravity experiments, exploration technology demonstrations (i.e. remote control robots to explore the lunar surface, acquire lunar materials and bring them up to the station), the processing of lunar samples, and the addition of commercial modules for private use.? This module is also to have a robotic arm.
4. An airlock element to enable docking and EVAs.? This would be a berth for the later to be built Deep Space Transport, for its first and subsequent missions to Mars.

Other modules have been proposed, such as the European System Providing Refueling, Infrastructure, and Telecommunications (ESPIRIT) and a utility module for storing additional food before being put to other uses.? No final design has yet been decided.

All of these modules are to be launched by the Falcon 9 from SpaceX.

The Deep Space Transport, to be built after the Gateway, will be built in stages, just like the ISS.? It is a ship designed to take astronauts to Mars, the first voyage being where they will only orbit the red planet, and land on Mars on subsequent voyages.

In the meantime, the Gateway will only have a crew of four personnel, occupying the station for 60 days at a time.? The station will be expandable, with the potential to add modules, even commercial ones, and to support additional personnel.

This Gateway is a part of the Artemis program, and many other nations have signed on to the gateway project, among those are Canada, Europe (the ESA), Japan (JAXA), and the UAE (United Arab Emerites).

The budget to pay for this station started out at $504.2 million in 2019, with increments for the following five years, up to 2024, totaling $27 billion.? (These figures were determined back in 2017.? This may have changed since then.)

In my opinion, with changes that NASA, and Congress makes, or budgetary delays, the Gateway will end up costing more; much more.? The total cost of the finished station will increase to over a factor of 10.? When the International Space Station (ISS) was built, the original proposed version was to cost $8 billion, back in 1984, but it ballooned up to $100 billion and counting, and don’t forget the maintenance costs.? In the final version, the Lunar Gateway will be a repeat of this.

Also, the additional modules after the PPE/HALO are scheduled to be installed once every two years, with a total of eight years before completion.? Additional modules will exceed their original costs, as always.? This is a long term plan, and long term plans have ways of getting cancelled, or changed, increasing the costs even more.? This will not help in the commercialization of space.

The newly proposed Gateway by NASA is a bad idea, in every respect, and it is highly recommended that this project be cancelled.? It is a waste of time, money, resources, and in reality, it has no useful purpose.? It will only hinder the space movement.

Every single purpose can be used in separate, more creative and cheaper ways in other places, and this proposed station is not needed in any of these proposed functions.

Lab experiments can be done on space stations designed specifically for that purpose, and they don’t have to be in lunar orbit.? They are being performed on the ISS right now, and private space stations will soon appear in Low Earth Orbit for that same purpose.

The acquisition and processing of lunar materials can be done on the lunar surface.

Human activity will occur on the Moon as we set up habitats, laboratories, and later factories and processing plants.? If we need to manufacture products in zero gravity, the minerals can be shipped to any space factory.

Commercial activities can be done in Low Earth Orbit, the Moon, or near-Earth asteroids, and that is where they should be performed.

A space station should not have multiple functions because they would only interfere with each other, getting nothing done.? Any single activity? should have its own space station in order for the personnel on board to focus all their energy on that one particular project.?

NASA may send a crew to Mars if a private entity doesn’t do it first, but a Lunar Orbital Gateway will not be needed.? Ships bound for Mars can be launched from Earth orbit or the lunar surface.

As for landing on the Moon, one can land directly from Earth or Earth orbit.? Robert Zubrin stated at the 21st Mars Conference on the subject of the Gateway, “If you want to go to the Moon, go to the Moon.? If you want to go to Mars, go to Mars.”? The Gateway is not needed to accomplish this task, and it has been proven with the Apollo Moon program.

I believe a lunar orbiting way station will and should someday be built, for transporting large numbers of personnel and cargo from Earth to the Moon and back.? This way station would be built when the Moon is developed, with multiple cities, and large populations traveling back and forth to and from the Moon everyday to other space settlements.

This way station would be what a modern airport, bus, or train station is to Earth today, accommodating, hundreds or thousands of passengers each day on many different ships docked there.? There would be a ferry from the Moon to the way station, and then ships traveling from the lunar way station to another way station orbiting Earth, where passengers can then take another ship to Earth’s surface, or to other space stations or space factories.

This, however, would be decades from now, and the way station described would only be for the purposes described above, nothing else.? This is very different from the planned Lunar Gateway.

All activities designed for the Lunar Gateway can be performed elsewhere, in a much more efficient manner, requiring a lot less capital to do all this.? I feel that the Lunar Orbital Gateway will be a waste of hundreds of billions of dollars, perhaps even in the trillion dollar range.

A Lunar Orbiting Platform - Gateway is not needed at all and it would be a waste of time, money and resources to build it.

It is highly recommended that the President, Congress, and NASA cancels the Lunar Gateway.? We can do a much better job of developing space without it.

Alastair Browne

#LunarOrbitalGateway #LunarOrbitalPlatformGateway #ProjectArtemis #Artemis

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Cain, Frasier;? “Where Do We Go Next?? Building the Deep Space Gateway.”? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFs1EzRb--Y;? September 24, 2017.

2. ? Davis, Jason;? “Some snark (and details!) about NASA’s proposed lunar space station;”? The Planetary Society;? https://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2018/20180226-lop-g-snark-details.html;? February 26, 2018.

3.? Mix of Orion,? “Lunar Orbital Platform Gateway”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uiy67s8zqHU;? April 30, 2018.

4.? Sloss, Philip;? “Cislunar station gets thumbs up, new name in President’s budget request;”? https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2018/03/cislunar-station-new-name-presidents-budget/#more-55429;? March 16, 2018.

5.? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Gateway

6.? Zubrin, Robert and John Mankins;? Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway Debate;? 21st Annual Mars Society Convention;? Pasadena, California;? August 23-26, 2018;? www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f6fMI5DiOA.