There are exactly two space stations in
orbit around planet Earth right now. One
of them you will have heard of, the
International Space Station. But what
about the other one? Tiangong or the
Heavenly Palace is the third in a series
of space stations launched and
maintained by the People's Republic of
China. It has been in orbit since 2021.
Yet, Western media reports much less on
what happens aboard this second
enigmatic bastion hanging in space's
expanse.
So, what is going on up there?
I decided to look into it. And when I
found the list of their past and current
experiments, and as I pieced together
what it meant, the sheer scale of
China's ambitions stunned me. We are
familiar with the sorts of things being
done on the ISS. Experiments aimed at
better understanding how humans might
adapt to space environments and
uncovering the mysteries of our universe
and its physics. Inevitably general in
scope, reflected in the differing
priorities and the emphases of each
nation collaborating within it. But
inside Tiangong, the goal is more
focused. What is that goal? The answer
might surprise you. I'm Alex Mccoan and
you're watching Astramm. Join with me
today as we uncover the goings on within
Tiangong space station and discover what
implications this might have on the
future of humanity in space.
Unlike the ISS, which has been in orbit
for over 25 years, China's own space
station endeavors only started in 2011
with the launch of the first Tiangong
space station. That's right. They
launched the whole space station in one
go. This was not a complex construction.
Tiangong 1 was a simple tube-like
prototype consisting of a sleeping and
living station for Chinese astronauts,
otherwise known as Tyonaut, a habitable
lab for docking and orbital experiments,
and a module for propulsion. The whole
station was only 10.4 4 m long compared
to the ISS 108 m and had two solar
panels on either side. Its simplicity
was a reflection of China's purposes for
it to master rendevu and docking
techniques and to only dip their toes in
the water of space habitation. Tiangong
1 was only in space for a little under 7
years. China did succeed in sending both
crude and uncrrewed missions to Tiangong
1. And boyed by this success, they upped
their game with plans for a larger space
station. To achieve this goal, more
tests would be needed. In 2016, a second
space station was launched, which also
bore the name of Tiangong. Tiangong 2
was intended to field test key
technologies that would be needed for
the larger space station and was
de-orbited just a few years later in
2019 once its tasks were completed. The
road was paved for China's Tiangong 3.
[Music]
Tiangong 3, often referred to as just
Tiangong, aims to be the home of
thousands of experiments. To further
this goal, Tiangong consists of the
Tienhi core module for crew to live in
and two science modules, Went and the
Mangen. The former designed to see
space's impact on living things and to
develop medical technologies, while the
second focused on microgravity and its
effects on fluid behavior, combustion,
and more. Rotating solar panels connect
to the station and turn to face the sun,
allowing Tiangong to maximize its energy
collection. The Tiangong has an external
robotic arm that can carry a Tyonaut to
various parts of the station, allowing
extra vehicular activities to be carried
out. The whole space station weighs 100
tons and is 55 m long and can house up
to six Tyonauts at once. smaller than
the ISS, but still large enough that it
had to be assembled module by module in
space with modules launched between 2021
and 2022.
Life aboard the Tiangong is in many ways
similar to life aboard the ISS. China
tries to keep its tyonauts happy with a
wide range of space foods, 120 different
kinds. Naturally, given the muscle
atrophying effect of microgravity, it's
important for tyonauts to spend time
each day exercising, or else they'd have
a very bad time of things when they came
back to Earth.
Similar to the ISS, one of the main aims
of the Tiangong space station is the
popularization of science. So, tyonauts
spend some of their time taking part in
presentations and collaborations with
schools in China. For instance, this
demonstration involving what fire looks
like when there's no gravity.
Students are also involved in growing
rice seeds from the same batch of seeds
growing on Tiangong, which will help
Chinese scientists explore the impacts
of microgravity on plant growth.
Tiangong is home to several life plants,
although some care has to be taken while
watering them.
Nothing so far here is too much out of
the ordinary. However, there is a theme
to the experiments being carried out on
Tiangong over the course of its 15-year
lifespan. Five themes, in fact, that all
point to a truly ambitious goal. The
five research themes are on orbit
assembly and construction technologies
in space, robotics and autonomous system
technology,
new energy and propulsion technology,
environmental control and life support
system technology, and new generic
technology for spacecraft.
The technical terminology can make
things a little murky, so let's break
down what each of these means.
Even just the first of these areas of
research is all inspiringly ambitious.
By onorbit construction technologies in
space, we're talking about developing
all the technology necessary to build
large space facilities or even
spacecraft.
In a paper released in 2023, Chinese
scientists laid out their goal to
develop 3D printing capabilities and
other manufacturing tools in orbit.
They're already some of the way there.
In 2018, they pioneered the first
technology to 3D print ceramics under
microgravity, which is appropriate for
the nation that was one of the first to
work with that material 10,000 years
ago. Their desire to pursue this goal
makes a lot of sense. Getting parts into
orbit is a tricky proposition. The
Tiangong space station itself had to be
built over the course of several
launches with great costs involved and
with risk to delicate systems every time
a module was launched. Imagine how much
easier it would be if you could simply
send raw material up and have it
processed and manufactured into usable
parts in space. Or even better to use
extraterrestrial materials already up
there. The idea is certainly logical,
but from the Tiangong's mission goals,
it's clear that this has gone beyond the
idea stage in China. They are looking
for ways to implement it. The paper also
describes inflatable, scalable
structures in space that could then be
used as a habitat on neighboring bodies.
These lightweight habitats, effectively
tents on the moon, would be easy to
transport, but aren't limited to the
moon. More on that later. Robotic
systems would go hand inhand with this.
The manufacturing industry back home on
Earth greatly benefits from robotic
assembly lines. Chinese scientists and
engineers are looking at ways robots can
perform tasks in space such as repair
work, construction, cargo transfer, and
more. Tyonauts are already laying the
groundwork by testing robots and their
ability to perform in microgravity, such
as this test here, where a robot was run
through this pipe.
But it goes further than just plans for
Earth orbit or even the moon. The next
research area looks towards developing
new forms of energy and propulsion
systems.
Solar panels are a great way to get
electricity in space. However, China is
looking into other options, likely
because once you get out to the ranges
of planets like Jupiter, sunlight is no
longer strong enough. NASA's Juno
mission is the furthest spacecraft to
use solar panels to date, as I talk
about in another of my videos here. But
by that distance from the sun, light
levels dropped to just 3% of what we get
here on Earth. hardly enough to support
large projects out at that distance. And
what this implies is that China is
considering large projects at that
distance, especially when combined with
their aim to create efficient propulsion
systems with long operating life. Any
rocket fuel propulsion system can get
heavy on long trips as you have to carry
all the fuel you use unless you can
develop it in situ. Due to these
increasing logistical costs, outposts
that are self-sufficient are incredibly
valuable. Which is why tyonauts are also
actively exploring ways to recycle
oxygen, water, grow food, prevent
microbial problems, and harmless
degradation of waste. This is one of the
reasons tyonauts are experimenting
growing rice in space. They're also
performing studies on the effects of
microgravity on living organisms such as
fruit flies to see how the conditions of
space affect life. And just at the start
of the year, Tyonaut successfully tested
a technology that brings oxygen
recycling and the need for insitu rocket
fuel together. In the first experiment
of its kind using a semiconductor
catalyst, taonauts on Tiangong produced
oxygen and hydrocarbon ethylene out of
carbon dioxide in an instance of
artificial photosynthesis.
Hydrocarbon ethylene can be used to make
rocket fuel. But researchers also
believe they could use the same process
to make methane, formic acid, or even
sugars, mimicking what plants do on
Earth.
This discovery is groundbreaking. On the
ISS, the electricity required to recycle
oxygen using electrolysis techniques is
thought to take up a third of the ISS's
energy usage. This new process is more
efficient, gets rid of the CO2 being
breathed, and can be done at room
temperature. That's an incredibly useful
technology to have on any long-distance
space mission.
Finally, Tyonauts are testing their gear
to make sure it works in space. This is
the last of the five research themes,
and while not as flashy as the others,
it's a vital step in the process, and
one that's difficult to replicate on
Earth. The unique conditions of
microgravity can put a lot of different
strains on machinery, for one example.
Fluid dynamics are much harder to
currently model, for another. And if you
want to solve these things, it's
practically impossible to replicate
microgravity if you're deep within our
gravity well.
Putting it all together, it becomes
clear that China is already thinking
very carefully about not just a lunar
base, but a vast network of habitats
across the solar system.
self-sufficient, able to mine resources
wherever they are. And with the
manufacturing capabilities to construct
parts or whole new spacecraft out of it.
With this infrastructure and technology
in place, China will be able to mine
resources from asteroids across the
solar system and set up human presences
on countless moons or planets. Yes, it's
still early days and it's not like China
is alone in this, but it's a sign of how
far things have progressed.
If China is testing out the technology
to build manufacturing bases in space,
the platforms themselves can't be that
far behind. To be clear, China isn't
trying to be secretive about any of
this. In fact, the Chinese are very in
favor of collaboration.
However, under American law, American
astronauts are not allowed on board
Tiangong without express permission from
Congress, something not likely to be
given. And although Europe initially
planned to collaborate with China, they
pulled out in 2023, citing insufficient
budget and no political green light.
Although European and American nations
are wary of it, China has invited
scientists across the world to perform
joint experiments on the Tiangong
station in a spirit of international
collaboration and mutual benefit. It
remains to be seen whether other nations
will join China in these experiments or
whether Tyonauts will be doing these
thousands of experiments on Tiangong
alone.
artificial photosynthesis,
orbital construction facilities capable
of building a space rocket, robotics,
insitue, rapid growth of food, new power
sources, new propulsion.
All in all, we are entering into a new
stage of space exploration.
To date, the furthest a human has ever
traveled from our home planet is our
moon. We've set foot there, looked
around, but soon came home again.
China's experiments on Tiangong are
signs that a new approach to space is
fast arriving. One where humanity does
not simply go to space to come back
again. We as a species are well on the
way to leaving the nest of our mother
earth and spreading our wings to fly out
and discover new territories further and
further onwards from there. I hope we
are ready for all that entails.
[Music]
400 km away from you, there is a
laboratory whose results no other lab
can replicate. Those results do not fit
with our dayto-day experience. As in
this lab, even time itself runs
differently, slower than anywhere on
Earth. That's because this lab is the
International Space Station. And in this
video, we'll see how even the most
mundane of experiments have surprising
results up there. But how is a
laboratory even built in outer space?
How does the human body survive there?
And once the station's life is lived,
how do you bring such a mega structure
down from space safely?
I'm Alex Mccoan and you're watching
Astramm. Join me today as we celebrate
the ISS, a place where science and
exploration transcend borders.
The idea to have an orbiting habitable
station in space has concretely been in
our imagination since 1868.
The American author Edward Everett Hill
wrote about the brick moon, a space
station made of uh bog standard bricks.
The US began taking the idea seriously
in the 1950s. And then in 1984, Rean
gave the presidential order to build the
ISS, which since its launch has been a
marvel of scientific discovery. Over its
decades of operation, the ISS has not
only expanded our understanding of the
universe, but also demonstrated the
power of unity in the pursuit of
knowledge, which is an incredible
achievement given that its genesis owes
much to a time when the Earth was a
button press away from nuclear
Armageddon.
War has led to technological
developments that seemed impossible in
peace time. Radar, jet engines,
computers, nuclear weapons, and Marmite
were all developed through a desperate
war effort. A nation's fight to survive
is perhaps one of the greatest
motivators for technological
advancement. And since the Cold War,
despite no shots being fired, was no
different because it pulled the trigger
on the space race. But what about the
times where there is no finish line?
when there is no enemy to be conquered.
Well, we wonder. Incredible scientific
discoveries are also often made when
scientists are left to be curious, left
to ask questions that sometimes seem to
have no useful answer and left to
actually collaborate.
That is how the idea for the
International Space Station was born.
The ISS was conceived after the
ambitions of the USA's Freedom Space
Station and the Soviet Union's M2 were
shelved at a time when space spending
was no longer justified by either
government. Now that the space race was
over, the ISS program today has the
involvement of 13 other member states,
including Canada, Japan, the UK, and
other European countries. The ISS is a
huge structure by any measure, spanning
108x73
m. It would just about fit inside a
football pitch. It weighs a staggering
$450 tons. And with an estimated cost to
date of $150 billion,
it's worth nearly 5 times its weight in
gold. Clearly, it was never an option to
launch all of this in one go. A move
that would have been both impractical
and extremely reckless. So the ISS was
planned to have a modular structure, one
to be assembled in space piece by piece.
Each module was designed and built by a
member state before being launched into
orbit on one of three vehicles.
America's space shuttle system or
Russia's Soyos or Proton rockets.
Remarkably, every launch carrying a
component of the space station delivered
successfully, numbering 40 to date.
There have been delays and mishaps, of
course, and some resupply launches have
failed. But if a component made it to
the launchpad, it is now part of the
space station.
The orbiting mega structure that we're
familiar with today is comprised of
three main sections. The backbone of the
station is called the integrated truss
structure. It is unpressurized and
uninhabitable, but it supports much of
the functionality, storage, and
equipment on the space station. The IT
was designed to bear four huge pairs of
double-sided solar arrays, capturing
light from the sun and rays reflected
from the Earth, which can generate 248
kW at peak.
But the ISS can only generate
electricity for 45 minutes per orbit. So
the station requires batteries to power
the system while the sun is eclipsed by
the Earth. Much of the power usage on
board is ultimately transformed into
heat. So the station needs large
radiators capable of discharging 70 kow
of heat into space in order to safely
regulate the temperature on board for
its inhabitants.
Below the IT, the space station is
divided into two pressurized and
habitable halves. The Russian orbital
segment and the United States orbital
segment. So, how was this all built?
Where would you start?
Let's watch several key stages of
construction to understand how the hole
can be built.
The first module put into orbit was the
Russian Zarya module in November 1998.
This module featured three docking ports
ready to accept the future modules and
solar panels to provide the station's
first power source.
The next mission launched later that
year from the John F. Kennedy Space
Center in December, carrying the Unity
module. The docking of Unity to Za would
mark the beginning of a new global space
age. Inside the space shuttle, the Unity
module was equipped with two pressurized
mating adapters or PMAs that interface
the American ports to the Russian port
and to the space shuttle's ports. The
space shuttle was fitted with a robotic
arm called a cannid arm, which could
attach to the 12ton Unity module and
position it above the space shuttle's
docking port. This movement had to be
done extremely slowly. Once aligned, the
shuttle's thrusters were fired to engage
the ports. When Za was reached, the
cannid arm was again used to reach out
and grab the Russian module and guide it
towards the PMA on the Unity module.
When it was in place, the thrusters were
carefully engaged to make the
connection. After a few checks, the
joint space station was released after 2
weeks of maneuvers.
With only these two modules, the station
was uninhabitable. But that changed in
July in 2000 with the launch of the
Zvezda module from Russia, bringing life
support and living quarters for two
astronauts. Later that year, the Z1
truss module was connected, ready to
join the habitable orbital segments to
the ITS.
And that November, Russia launched two
cosmonauts and an astronaut, Yuri
Gdzenko, Sergy Cricv, and Bill Shepard
to the space station to become its first
inhabitants. Their docking marked the
last time that the space station would
be uninhabited, and a crew has been on
board every day since.
For the first 4 months until the first
laboratory module named Destiny was
attached to the space station, the
astronauts were methodically
commissioning the station's key systems
and assisting with the delivery of
further modules. In April 2001, an
incredible tool was delivered by the
space shuttle that could be used to
maneuver objects in space without the
need to complete a spacew walk called
the Canad 2. It was the successor to the
robotic arm aboard the space shuttle
Endeavor. It could be attached by either
end at specific power data grapple
fixtures across the station. This means
that the arm had the incredible ability
to walk across the station to different
locations to assist wherever there was a
PDGF.
A future Endeavor mission in 2022
extended the utility of Canadam 2 by
delivering the Dextra, a tea
manipulator, essentially giving the
Canadam 2 a hand.
Over the next 10 years, modules were
continually added, including five more
laboratory modules from Russia, Japan,
Europe, and the US. Research aboard
these laboratories is truly
multiddisciplinary
and the questions studied can span
fields including astrobiology,
astronomy, physics, chemistry, space
weather, and space medicine. By the end
of 2009, the last of the main solar
arrays had been installed, meaning that
the ISS finally appeared like it does
today.
But not all the planned modules made it
into space. The Colombia disaster in
2003 led to the cancellation of some
projects, including the artificial
gravity module, a module that used
centrifugal force to simulate anywhere
from 0.01g
to 2G for use in experiments.
Artificial gravity has been a mainstay
of sci-fi and it would have been
extraordinary to see humanity test its
own systems on the ISS,
not least because the astronauts and
cosmonauts would have appreciated it
too. The absence of gravity on the
station is a huge complication for
day-to-day life. Almost nothing behaves
as you would expect, ranging from the
mundane to the deadly. Even the simple
act of drinking a coffee made by the
station's barista, the Espresso, could
be risky when you're surrounded by
sensitive scientific equipment, zero
gravity, and 100 laptop keyboards.
A significant part of the research of
the station's research program has been
on understanding the behavior of
objects, fluids, and people in a zerog
environment.
And if Trump's recently announced man
mission to Mars is to be successful, a
trip that would take up to 10 months
each way, it will stand upon the
research of the ISS.
Studies on the past crews of the station
have shown how in the chronic absence of
gravity, the human body will ruthlessly
atrophy any organ or structure that is
surplus to its requirements. Organs are
expensive to run. The muscularkeeletal
system in particular will degrade, bones
weaken, and the heart shrinks. Careful
exercise regimens must be planned in
order for the crew to maintain bone
density and heart function for their
physical health. The ISS is equipped
with a custom gym so the crew can
maintain some of their fitness. But
despite all that equipment, it cannot
fully simulate the coordinated strength
and balance required to walk on Earth.
and the astronauts effectively have to
relearn how to walk on their return. The
lack of gravity affects other organisms
too. In space, even microbes behave
differently. Aboard the ISS, zerog has
been found to alter the gene expression
of certain salmonella pathogens that
just so happens to have the effect of
increasing their virulence, making them
even deadlier. Well, I guess it could
have gone either way. More immediate
problems also present themselves in
zerog. Fire is of course dangerous in
most situations, but on Earth, we at
least have an intuition for how it moves
and behaves. In space, fire can expand
in any direction because without
gravity, there is no convection, and so
the less dense hot air no longer rises.
Flames in space can sit and persist or
even be invisible for lengths of time
because a low burn rate can be sustained
by diffusion.
Fluid dynamics is a crucial focus of
space research. Because without
convection, even attempting to boil a
kettle is going to land you in a pot of
hot water. The nucleate pool boiling
experiment was designed to study this
exact problem because without
convection, how do you achieve efficient
heat transfer in space? A kettle in
space would be hampered by the formation
of a large bubble at the heated base.
Not that you would particularly want a
hot cup of tea because in this
convectionless environment, the body
cools less efficiently. So the
atmosphere in the habitable areas needs
to be well circulated. Other fluids need
to be actively moved around in space by
fans and propellers too. And as is the
theme, even these behave differently in
zeroging
propellers can cause cavitation in a
fluid where a cavity is ripped open in
the fluid and then explosively collapsed
by the surrounding pressure. That
collapse releases shock waves that carry
large amounts of energy and can cause
significant damage. Meaning that
propagation needs to be understood so
that our equipment can go the distance
on any space mission. Incredibly,
research into cavitation in microgravity
on Earth provided insight into the most
explosive acts in our universe,
supernova. A previously unexplained
supernova form has been linked to the
collapse of bubbles in a fluid in zerog
under a process called eccentric core
collapse. These experiments so far are
all critical for the success of any
future long duration space travel. But
the ISS runs powerful physics
experiments too.
[Music]
In addition to the six pressurized
laboratories, the IT carries an
experiment called the Alpha Magnetic
Spectrometer. One that NASA considers as
important as Hubble and one that
requires so much power and so much
bandwidth that almost no other vehicle
in space could run it. But what does it
do? It's a detector, the business end of
a particle accelerator.
Space has cosmic voids with hidden
objects that can generate particles with
energies equivalent to a pitched
baseball. Think about that. 240 extra
electron volts, millions of times more
powerful than what our biggest
accelerators can produce. Its stated aim
is to research dark matter, specifically
to search for evidence of a hypothetical
particle predicted by super symmetry
called a neutralino.
Moving on from the hottest particles in
the universe to the coldest, NASA's cold
atom lab was designed to explore the
quantum properties of matter and can
reach temperatures of 1 millionth of a
Kelvin.
It was the first to produce the fifth
state of matter, a Bose Einstein
condensate in 0g.
On Earth, these condensates eventually
collapse due to gravity, but in space,
they float and persist. The crew has
even been able to synthesize atomic
bubbles aboard the ISS, a form of
macroscopic quantum behavior. Long lived
BEC's in orbit is a significant step,
and they have uses. Atom
interpherometers that can be used to
measure gravitational waves in a way
that complements LIGO's capability.
Atom interpherometry using BEC's would
be able to capture the middle band
frequencies of gravitational waves that
LIGO cannot detect, allowing us to
detect different objects and probe
quantum gravity more precisely.
The AMS isn't the only external
experiment on the ISS. The Japanese
laboratory module called KBO has a
facility known as the terrace. In the
vacuum of space, KBO has been crucial in
gathering climate data with sensors to
perform atmospheric gas monitoring,
ecosystem thermal imaging, and
experiments with laser communications.
It also features a hyperspectral camera
to take images of the ocean around
complex coastal areas. Typical cameras
record in three bands R, G, and B. But a
hyperspectral camera records wavelength
information across the entire visible
spectrum, which along with other data
recorded provides a rich data set to
understand the effects of climate
change. Not only is the space station
helping us to soar from the Earth, it is
perhaps more importantly helping us to
continue to walk upon it. The
International Space Station is more than
a scientific laboratory, though. It is a
symbol of what humanity can achieve when
we cooperate and reach for the stars. As
we look to the future, the ISS reminds
us that the boundaries of exploration
are limited only by our imagination and
our willingness to work together.
In the 2030s, the ISS will complete its
final mission. In a carefully
orchestrated process, the station will
be de-orbited with its remains safely
scattering across the Pacific Ocean.
While its physical presence will be
gone, the knowledge and inspiration it
has provided will continue to shape the
future of space exploration. The end of
the ISS will mark the beginning of a new
era in space exploration. Private
companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin
are poised to take on a greater role.
While international partners are already
planning next generation space stations
like the orbital reef and lunar gateway,
the lessons learned from the ISS will
guide these efforts, ensuring that its
legacy endures.
The International Space Station is an
absurdly ambitious project that has
stretched across decades and we only
skimmed its contributions to science in
this video. If you would like us to dive
into an ISS topic you would like to
learn more on, let us know in the
comments below.
Objects tumble around in space. So, have
you ever wondered how the International
Space Station stays upright? It's not
just with thrusters. Watch what happens
when this gyroscope starts spinning. Due
to an effect known as procession and a
fun quirk of Newton's first law, a
gyroscope is an incredibly stable object
in space. No matter which way you knock
it, it will always try to keep its
orientation. The fascinating thing is
that the International Space Station
utilizes this effect in an array of
counterbalancing gyroscopes to maintain
its orientation in the sky.
You may have heard me mention the
Arteimus program on this channel, the
ambition of NASA to get a human colony
on the moon and eventually on Mars.
A big part of this venture is Gateway.
A joint effort by NASA, issa, Roscosmos,
JAXA, and the CSA, the same space
agencies that are currently working
together on the ISS.
And like the ISS, Gateway will be a
space station, but not around the orbit
of Earth, but instead around the moon.
So, how will it work? What does it hope
to achieve? And why have a space station
around the moon in the first place?
I'm Alex Mccoan and you're watching
Astramm. And in this video, we will
investigate the Gateway Mission and find
out why it is such a crucial part of
NASA's ambitions.
This video is a special collaboration
with the Robotitus channel and our own
Astramm Spanish channel. If you are
Spanish speaking, then be sure to check
out their channels in the description
below.
The Gateway mission will coincide with
the launch of NASA's new rocket, the
SLS, or the Space Launch System. This
rocket is the most powerful built to
date, even surpassing the old Saturn 5
rocket.
It is huge. And it has to be because
NASA hopes to be able to launch 130 tons
worth of payload into a low Earth orbit
with a smaller yet still very heavy
payload to even further destinations.
This will be important because as I
mentioned, the end goal of the Arteimus
program is to get humans to the moon and
Mars. And humans tend to need a little
bit more to keep them alive than a
robotic mission would. Launching all
this life support into space means that
not only has Gateway been designed to be
a communications repeater for several
deep space missions, but it will also
serve as a pit stop. It incorporates a
cabin module in which crews can prepare
before embarking on other missions.
However, unlike Space X rockets which
are trying to cut costs by utilizing
reusable boosters,
an SLS launch will be expensive as it
uses disposable boosters. Combine this
with the cost of research and
development, and this could bring the
cost per launch in the region of an
eyewatering $2 billion.
As such, the SLS has had its opponents
throughout development. But regardless,
they are committed now, and it's only a
year away from its first voyage. Putting
the arguments of cost aside, the SLS
will be the most powerful rocket ever
created by NASA.
A true monster capable of sending a
large amount of cargo into space with
more power than ever. Just look at some
of these tests they have recently run.
One launch alone could get around 45
tons to Mars.
The rocket's first task will be to get
the Orion module, a human ready capsule
that will provide the housing needed to
get a crew into space and back again,
re-entering into Earth's atmosphere
safely with a heat shield and parachute.
The loading capacity of the SLS will not
only allow the launch of Orion and its
crew, but also some of the different
modular components and instruments
needed to assemble Gateway. As such, the
construction of Gateway will be a long
process as they won't be able to launch
the whole of it in one go.
In fact, construction is not expected to
finish until 2026, and that's only for
the most basic and necessary modules.
Fortunately, due to Gateway's modular
design, possibilities to gradually
expand the space station is a real and a
likely possibility depending on the
needs of future missions.
Although NASA have plans to get to Mars
in the 2030s, NASA is also highly
dependent on the budget it receives. So
while there are several missions
proposed up until 2028, including
several piloted missions, they depend on
the success of the first missions and
whether NASA continues to get the budget
it's getting from the US government. At
this point though, I can't envisionage
it not going ahead, barring total
disaster, as China are hot on America's
heels and have equally ambitious sights
set on the moon and beyond. And
America's efforts are probably spurred
on by China's advances in space, we
might have a good old-fashioned space
race on our hands.
Now, while this is done in the name of
science, with the billions of tons of
precious metals in space and with the
progress in technology space missions
bring, you could certainly see this
being commercially viable as well as
being important in a militaristic sense.
And you can be sure neither party wants
to be left behind on this one.
Going back to Gateway, NASA intends to
start with the basics. So the first
phase of gateway's construction will
focus on installing the power and
propulsion modules to expand it later
with the halo module which will be a
very basic space habitat which will
allow the stay of at least 30 days for a
crew of four people. During the
construction process of gateway NASA
will send a rover to the lunar south
pole. The rover's special task is to map
the location of water trapped at the
bottom of the craters so we can better
understand just how much is there and to
see how pure it is. This is because one
of the proposed places for a settlement
on the moon is around its south pole
where the presence of water ice has been
confirmed. Hidden at the bottom of
eternally dark craters which protect the
ice from the sun's rays. These craters
could be perfect candidates for a
possible habitat, as they would protect
astronauts residing there, too. The
peaks around the craters, on the other
hand, would be exposed to the most
amount of sunlight, allowing solar
arrays to capture energy from the sun
more easily for power and for the
cultivation of plants.
Remember, solar arrays wouldn't be so
effective anywhere else on the moon due
to its days that last a month, and 2
weeks in the dark isn't so useful there.
Although we know from previous missions
that water does exist at the bottom of
the South Pole craters, we don't have a
good handle on how much as the lack of
light there makes observations from
space impossible. This is going to be
one of the obstacles the rover will need
to overcome. It will have to travel into
a crater on battery power alone and
leave again before it runs out so that
the rover can charge them up again using
the solar panels.
The design of the rover is still pending
and in fact it will be picked as part of
a design contest proposed by NASA to
different companies.
Once Gateway is built, NASA plans to
launch the Arteimus 3 mission, whose
crew will be stationed at Gateway using
the Orion module to expand the space
station's living space. Scientists will
be able to study the effect on
astronauts outside the substantial
protection of the Earth's
magneettosphere.
During these short stays, they will test
whether radiation exposure can be
reduced to an acceptable amount. Also,
as part of the mission, two members of
the crew will remain in orbiting gateway
while the other two will land at the
south pole of the moon where they will
remain for about 1 week. They too will
be expected to perform several moon
walks again to examine samples of water
ice and perform other scientific
observations around the pole.
It is proposed that included in this
team will be the first female astronaut
on the moon. Although names have not yet
been picked,
the space suits they use will be a vast
improvement over the Apollo
counterparts. They incorporate a new
design to grant much more mobility.
If you remember the videos of the first
Apollo missions to the moon, you will
remember that the astronauts moved
around very awkwardly, jumping around
like rabbits.
In this mission, they can walk and flex
their legs. So, thanks to this greater
mobility and the use of modern cameras,
we can expect a series of epic videos of
these astronauts walking on the moon.
Building on the Arteimus 3 mission, NASA
is planning to start construction on the
moon itself to build a lunar colony that
they hope will one day be
self-sufficient.
Everything that is learned in this
colony in the relative proximity to
Earth will be valuable experience which
can be used eventually on the red
planet. This includes oxygen production
systems, water recycling, plant
cultivation, and in general making the
room suitable for a long-term human
presence.
Going to the moon may be more
economically viable than going to Mars,
at least in the short term, because not
only are the costs of sending something
to the moon lower, but the moon can be a
source of rare materials. For instance,
helium 3, which would be useful in a
future nuclear fusion generator on the
moon, and it might have more uses on
Earth, too. This element is
exceptionally rare on Earth, and at one
point it reached the price of $2,000 per
gram.
In addition, the moon could be used as a
steel plant for the manufacturer of
metal foams. On Earth, this is achieved
by injecting pressurized air into cast
metal. But the process is tricky because
bubbles can be produced that rise and
explode, making the manufacturing of
metal foams on Earth very difficult and
expensive. On the other hand, in the low
lunar gravity, this process would be
much simpler and the spongy structure of
the metal much more uniform and of a
higher quality. Once the material is
ready, it is very easy to send it to
Earth since you don't need a large
rocket due to the weak lunar gravity.
One possibility is that it could be
launched back to Earth with a magnetic
catapult, something like a rail gun,
launching the order back to Earth or
into orbit around the moon to be picked
up by a spacecraft later on. Again
though, that's something for the far
future. After Arteimus 3, there are up
to four more proposed missions which
will continue to expand Gateway as a hub
for more Luna missions, but with the end
goal looking to finally send humans to
Mars.
So fingers crossed for the success of
these missions. I feel like exploration
is in humanity's blood, and these really
are the new frontiers in this day and
age. And with China pressing ahead with
their own space program, we could be in
for some exciting years ahead with
regards to space exploration.
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