During the 69-th International Astronautical Congress Lockheed Martin provided a detailed description of the concept of a manned spacecraft designed for landing on the moon and carry astronauts back to the lunar orbital station Gateway, the construction of which, according to the latest NASA plans to begin in 2022. Page document of the company published on its official website.
According to earlier sounded plans of the space Agency NASA, in the first years of operation the station will be used as a scientific platform for external study of the moon. People on it will be delivered via a super-heavy carrier rocket SLS and Orion spacecraft, developed by the same Lockheed Martin.
In the future, the station Gateway are going to use as a staging point for expeditions to the moon’s surface, and in more distant prospect – as a staging point for expeditions to more distant space, for example, to Mars. In this case, the station can be used, for example, as a gas station. Space Agency NASA plans to permanently define the concept of missions to the lunar surface only in 2024, but Lockheed Martin decided to begin now to design the lander for future moon expeditions.
The proposed Lockheed Martin variant designed for a crew of four. Astronauts will be able to dwell in it until the earth 14 days. According to the concept, the module will have a height of 14 metres and a weight of 22 tons. Engineers propose to use a modified four liquid hydrogen-oxygen rocket engine RL-10. The weight of fuel and oxidizer will be 40 tons. To replenish the fuel for the module are proposed by sending to the station a special logistics vehicles, which will operate between the earth and low-lunar orbits.
In addition to people using the lander will be delivered to the lunar surface payload, which may be required in the course of performing missions on the surface, weighed up to a ton.
Module are encouraged to make reusable. It will deliver to the station just once, and then will be used for missions on the moon’s surface. As reported in the published document, in the course of concept design engineers have used experience gained in the work on the multipurpose manned spacecraft Orion. According to experts, the creation and experience of using the lunar landing module, in turn, will be useful in the development and implementation of manned missions to Mars.
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Lockheed Martin has introduced the concept of the lunar landing module for the station Gateway
Nikolai Khizhnyak