The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has shared details about its habitation platforms for lunar and Martian missions. NASA is designing habitat modules for both lunar exploration and Martian transportation missions, and those for the latter will support life for more than a thousand days. The former, called the Surface Habitat (SH) is central to the space agency's Artemis program since it will be the primary residence for the astronauts during their missions. The habitat will be able to support 30 day missions for two crew members, and it is also designed to accommodate four members for short time periods during a transitory period.
NASA's Lunar Habitat Significantly Expands Exploration Capabilities Over Apollo Era Missions
The surface habitat's operations will be based on NASA's landing site for the Artemis missions since they will land on the lunar south pole. Four astronauts are expected to operate on the Moon at a time, with two living in the surface habitat and two living in a logistics lander. Transportation between the lander and the habitat will occur through a rover, and NASA anticipates that the SH will evolve to support four crew members for up to sixty days.
It is also designed to function as a life support system for the lunar lander. This will see the lander dock to the SH and transfer urine and condensate to it. These will be processes and water and gasses capable of supporting the astronauts will flow back to the lander. The habitat will have to endure long eclipses, lasting more than a hundred days. At the same time, engineers will also work on ensuring that the habitat can sustain long dormancy periods that will require the SH to be in storage mode.
This is a crucial design challenge as NASA cannot leverage the experience it has gained from the space station to design the SH, as the station requires constant human presence for operation.
The habitat will work together with NASA's Artemis Base Camp. The space agency is quite optimistic about the Artemis program's ability to expand astronauts' time living and working on the Moon. The Artemis mission will utilize the lunar south pole, where daylight is present for as many as 200 days, while the Apollo astronauts had to contend with 14 days of daylight on the equator and fly back to Earth before this period elapsed.
These elements will also help NASA in preparing itself for Mars exploration missions. The SH will allow it to stimulate Mars missions on the Moon and work with a new module called a Mars Transit Habitat (MTH). During the simulation phases, the crew will connect with the MTH directly or through NASA's lunar space station called the Gateway. Then, they will descend to the Moon and work there as if they were working on Mars. Once the surface missions are complete, the astronauts will return to the Mars habitat and stimulate a return journey to Earth.
Overall, several of the surface habitat's design features, such as dormancy, dust protection and power generation and storage, will also apply to future Mars missions. In a fresh Facebook post, NASA also shared details about the MTH where it outlined that "the Mars Transit Habitat will carry four crew on an up to 1,200-day journey to and from Mars." Communication to the crew on a Martian mission is also complex due to the long delays that can last for as long as 24 minutes, while surface modules often have to lie dormant on the surface for months before a crew arrives for habitation.
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