LughNASA to build $20 bn moon base, pause orbital lunar station plans
LastYearsIrritantI’m not sure if the gateway specifically was a great idea, but now we won’t have any microgravity research labs.
The moon is important, but it’s also critical to be able to research in orbit, especially long term research.
LOP-G would have been a great step towards interplanetary travel. Mine rocket fuel on the lunar surface, transport it to LLO, build your spaceship in a drydock there, safely just a couple days from earth, and launch from space with 60% less delta-V penalty.
Plus, LOP-G would have been an excellent place from which to carry out radio astronomy and optical telescope observations while on the far side of the moon, with it shielding you from the radio pollution from earth.
The best place in the universe for radio astronomy is on the surface of the far side of the moon. It’s the only spot that’s 100% guaranteed to never get directly hit by terrestrial radio.
Optical telescopes… probably one of the Lagrange points. But on a space station is ok too. Just too easy for the station to cause vibrations and out-gassing to interfere.
I’m not sure about using it for interplanetary gateway. It feels like it’s not the best place, but I’m just some knucklehead that’s played too much kerbal. I think having an earth orbit refueling station, or a lunar surface refueling station would be more useful.
That being said, I wouldn’t complain if they did any of those with the gateway. Just feels like micro-gravity and radiation research are the only real things that can only be done on a station to this uneducated citizen.