I-HAB (International - Habitat), a pressurized module that will provide crew living quarters, plus docking points to supply interfaces and resources to vehicles in transit.Thales Alenia Space has been chosen to build Europe’s two main contributions to this space station: Through our contributions to the ISS, the Axiom commercial space station and now the lunar space station, we are expanding the possibilities in this field, not only in terms of technology, but also for the safety and comfort of astronauts.” Hervé Derrey, CEO of Thales Alenia Space declared, “We would like to thank our customer ESA for continuing to place their trust in our ability to build Europe’s two main contributions to the lunar space station, as well as national space agencies in particular CNES and ASI for their support in these two programs. Gaining new experiences on and around the Moon will prepare NASA to send the first humans to Mars in the coming years, and the Gateway will play a vital role in this process. It is not intended for permanent occupancy, but will be able to host 4-person crews for periods of one to three months. The final configuration is still partly under final consolidation, but it will mainly comprise habitation modules for the crew offering as well docking capabilities for visiting vehicles and the Orion space capsule, logistics modules, communications with the Earth and Moon, EVA airlocks for scientific experiments and crew extravehicular activities (EVA), as well as a robotic arm. The station, weighing about 40 metric tons, will be automatically assembled piece by piece in a near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO)* around the Moon. It is being implemented through international cooperation, currently involving NASA (United States), ESA (Europe), JAXA (Japan) and CSA (Canada) with each partner in charge of the development of complementary elements, to be assembled and operated in lunar orbit as from 2024. This Gateway, a manned lunar orbital infrastructure, is one of the pillars of NASA’s Artemis program, designed to return humans to the Moon by 2024.
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