Gateway, an international space station in orbit around the Moon, will be humanity’s first outpost in deep space. As a cornerstone of the Artemis program, Gateway is being developed in partnership with NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The first modules will be launched in 2027 and sent on their 15-month voyage to lunar orbit.
Designed to operate both autonomously and with crew, the station will serve as a staging post for human missions to the Moon. It will help us learn how to live and work in space away from Earth, preparing for future missions to Mars and beyond. It will also serve as a platform for scientific research, providing valuable insight into the workings of the Earth-Moon system.
ESA’s contribution to the early scientific exploitation of Gateway are the European Radiation Sensor Array (ERSA) and the Internal Dosimeter Array (IDA) — two payloads that are going to characterise the primary and induced radiation fields in the near-Earth, cis-lunar, and lunar environments. Mounted to the HALO and PPE modules, they are going to be among the first Gateway elements launched into space.
More information on Gateway and ESA’s contributions can be found here.
