The Boeing Company this week unveiled concepts for the Deep Space Gateway and Transport systems that could help achieve NASA’s goal of having robust human space exploration from the Moon to Mars. Both of Boeing’s concepts leverage proven solar electric propulsion technology and hardware design from the 702 satellite family.
Boeing Deep Space Gateway. Image credit: Boeing Company.
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), which Boeing is helping develop, would deliver the habitat to cislunar space near the Moon.
Known as the Deep Space Gateway, the spaceport would have a power bus, a small habitat to extend crew time, docking capability, an airlock, and serviced by logistics modules to enable research.
The propulsion system on the gateway mainly uses high power electric propulsion for station keeping and the ability to transfer among a family of orbits in the lunar vicinity.
The three primary elements of the gateway, the power and propulsion bus and habitat module, and a small logistics module(s), would take advantage of the cargo capacity of SLS and crewed deep space capability of NASA’s Orion spacecraft.
“The ability to simultaneously launch humans and cargo on SLS would allow us to assemble the gateway in four launches in the early 2020s,” said Pete McGrath, director of global sales and marketing for Boeing’s space exploration division.
Boeing Deep Space Transport vehicle on approach. Image credit: Boeing Company.
The Deep Space Gateway could be the waypoint for Mars missions.
Utilizing a docking system akin to what the International Space Station (ISS) uses for commercial operations, it could host the Deep Space Transport vehicle.
This spacecraft would be a reusable vehicle that uses electric and chemical propulsion and would be specifically designed for crewed missions to destinations such as Mars.
The transport would take crew out to their destination, return them back to the gateway, where it can be serviced and sent out again. The transport would take full advantage of the large volumes and mass that can be launched by the SLS rocket, as well as advanced exploration technologies being developed now and demonstrated on the ground and aboard the ISS.
This second phase will culminate at the end of the 2020s with a one year mission in the lunar vicinity to validate the readiness of the system to travel beyond the Earth-Moon system to Mars and other destinations, and build confidence that long-duration, distant human missions can be safely conducted with independence from Earth.
Through the efforts to build this deep space infrastructure, this phase will enable explorers to identify and pioneer innovative solutions to technical and human challenges discovered or engineered in deep space.
