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NASA has signed a contract with Northrop Grumman to develop Halo, a residential module for a lunar orbital gateway. Its budget is $187 million.
The lunar orbital gateway is a forward base for astronauts heading to the moon or Mars as part of NASA’s ongoing Artemis project. The Halo interior has a one-room space, and it connects to the Orion spacecraft under development by NASA and supports the life of an astronaut. It is now in the preliminary design phase, and design reviews are conducted by the end of 2020, detailed evaluation of the design, and verification of overall stability and reliability of the system and whether it meets screw requirements.
According to NASA, the contract is to complete the design of all systems and subsystems, and by the end of 2023, a contract to manufacture Halo to integrate with the lunar orbital gateway power propulsion unit PPE will be signed.
The highest configuration of the lunar orbital gateway, PPE and Halo, will be completed in 2023 and launched while docked, avoiding cost and risk. In addition, Halo is not a completely new design, and development is based on the proven Cygnus spacecraft. In addition, PPE is a solar cell equipped with a 60kW solar electric propulsion system, which drives the posture through power, and allows astronauts to move to a good position to land at any place on the moon. In addition, NASA plans to select PPE and Halo launch rockets by late fall 2020. Related information can be found here .
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