QNASA is embarking on what it calls its Artemis lunar exploration program. Can you tell us about this new
initiative?
AArtemis, in Greek mythology, is the goddess of the hunt and goddess of the moon. She is also the twin sister of
Apollo. Apollo, of course, was our big NASA moon exploration campaign in the late 1960s. Today, we are driving
forward, pushing to return humans to the moon and land
the first woman and the next man on the moon’s surface
in 2024.
The big change this time is we are trying to do it sustainably. We want to set up a way where we can push the economy from “low Earth orbit,” where it is now, even farther.
We intend to use the moon as a stepping-stone, pulling
commercial industry out there with
us so that we can go beyond to Mars.
QAs part of this project, NASA will build the Gateway, a small
spaceship that will orbit the moon
and include living quarters for astronauts, a lab for science and research,
and ports for visiting spacecraft. Can
you tell us a little about that?
ATo put the project in context, the International Space Station
that’s in use today flies in low Earth
orbit—a couple hundred miles
above the surface of the Earth. It’s
about the size of a six-bedroom
house and serves as a laboratory.
With Gateway, we are pushing from
a couple hundred miles above Earth
to 250,000 miles away to the orbit
of the moon. In contrast to the
International Space Station, Gateway will be more like the
size of a studio apartment or a recreational vehicle. It will
serve as our command hub and our waypoint to aggregate
all the pieces that we need to conduct a sustainable campaign out in deep space.
QThis would be within lunar orbit? How far away from the moon will the Gateway actually orbit?
A Think of the International Space Station today. It is in a low Earth orbit, where it constantly stays within 200
or so miles of Earth. Gateway will be in a highly elliptical
or stretched-out oval-type seven-day orbit. That gets us
as close as 1,900 miles to the surface of the moon. Then
it will jump out to as far as 43,000 miles on the far end of
that orbit. That will make it easier for us to move things
to a point that is closer to Earth but farther away from the
moon. The supplies can be delivered and then ride the rest
of the way in on the Gateway, as it completes its orbit and
moves closer to the moon.
Q You’ve said that with Artemis, you’re taking a different approach from the Apollo lunar exploration program
in the 1960s. Can you elaborate on that?
