Nasa sets sights on the moon again, but this time as a gateway to Mars
Dallas — Nasa’s goal of returning to the moon should see a major push in early 2019, when the agency awards its first contract for the lunar Gateway programme. The Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway is Nasa’s planned "staging" area intended for studies of the moon and the deep-space environment. Eventually, it will function as a way station for astronauts travelling to and from Mars. Nasa’s first spending for the platform will be for power and propulsion elements early in 2019, followed by habitation components, associate administrator William Gerstenmaier said on Thursday at the Space Symposium conference in Colorado Springs, Colorado. They will probably be launched moonward, in that order, starting in 2022. The platform should be orbiting the moon in 2025, said Gerstenmaier, a Nasa veteran who oversees human exploration and operations. It will carry a four-astronaut crew on 30-day missions, he said. The Gateway would also further Nasa’s goal of another human landing on the moon and wi...
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