NASA is tapping the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to help with the ongoing construction of the Lunar Gateway. Set to act as an ever-moving station in orbit around our planet’s satellite, the UAE has now been tapped to design the airlock module on the Lunar Gateway.
This move further solidifies the partnership between NASA and its international partners, including the AUE. The agency shared the news that the UAE will contribute to constructing the Crew and Science Airlock for Gateway earlier this week.
This construction of this module is important because it will allow the crew aboard the Lunar Gateway to perform spacewalks outside the Gateway as they install and retrieve external payloads for scientific operations. No exact date has been shared for the module’s construction, but the crown prince of Dubai said in a social media post that they are targeting 2030 for the project’s completion.
On top of solidifying NASA’s international partnerships, this project will also guarantee the UAE a spot on a future Artemis mission, allowing one of their astronauts to travel to the moon aboard the historic missions that kicked off last year with Artemis I.
The Lunar Gateway’s construction will see the station being built in a rectilinear halo orbit around the moon, where it will support landings at the lunar south polar region. These landings will be part of future Artemis missions and attempts by NASA and others to set up long-term bases on the Moon.
It’s really great to see NASA expanding its international partnerships, and the UAE has done some really great things with its space agency in the past year. Unfortunately, most of the UAE’s missions have flown under the radar because it is a smaller agency. With partnerships like this, though, we’ll likely see even more from the UAE going forward.
