gateway’s power and propulsion elementsWhat will make the lunar space station the most powerful solar electric spacecraft ever flown has recently acquired xenon and liquid fuel tanks for the trip to and around the Moon.

Technicians in Palo Alto, California carefully install a piece of equipment into which the tanks will be placed. Once fully assembled and launched into lunar orbit, the rolled-out solar array of power and propulsion elements – together about the size of the endzone of an American football field – will activate the xenon gas and launch the Moon’s Gateway. Will use the sun’s energy to generate thrust to reach . in orbit where it will await the arrival of its first crew Artemis IV mission.

The power and propulsion element will also carry the European Radiation Sensor Array science experiment, one of three provided by ESA (European Space Agency) and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). gateway science experiment Which will study solar and cosmic radiation. This poorly understood phenomenon is a major concern for humans and hardware traveling to deep space destinations such as Mars and beyond.

The power and propulsion elements are managed from NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, and manufactured by Maxar Space Systems of Palo Alto, California.