Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2017

44 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2017 ASTRONAUTICS pended and then relaunched without any particular ambitions, while all the other government space agencies are limited to at most sending astronauts and supplies to the ISS, stirring up often unjustified enthusiasms since going into orbit is no longer a novelty and even the docking manoeuvre is nothing new. As if this weren’t enough, even today it isn’t terribly rare to see space missions threatened by the explosion of a typical car- rier rocket, whose functioning principle is more than 80 years old. In this less-than-ex- hilarating scenario, it is inevitable that news of the possible construction of a space sta- tion near the Moon would attract attention from the mass media. But what aroused spe- cial interest was a joint announcement from NASA and Roscosmos in late September, ac- cording to which the two space agencies will work together on the project known as the Deep Space Gateway. The idea is to build a space station in a cislunar position, meaning in the Lagrangian point L1 of the Earth-Moon system, which allows relatively easy access to lunar and terrestrial orbits with a minimum change in velocity, with considerable advantages for transporting goods and people from one celestial body to the other. In addition to being a place to experience all the conditions that astro- nauts may encounter during a journey to- wards Mars, the Deep Space Gateway will act as an outpost for lunar landing missions as well as missions to intermediate destina- tions such as nearby asteroids. The Deep Space Gateway will therefore be a sort of spaceport, where space vehicles and crews will arrive and depart for different kinds of missions. To assemble the new space station, NASA will use a powerful carrier rocket called the Space Launch System, integrated with the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, a small spacecraft (5 metres in diameter, 3.3 metres high) capable of hosting four astro- D iagram of the new strategy to reach Mars, chosen by NASA and shared by Roscosmos. The current phase is Phase 0, and for now there is only an agreement on the intention to possibly proceed further. [NASA]