24.02.2025
Thales Alenia Space has leveraged its longstanding experience to support agencies and partners supplying pressurized modules for the next humanity endeavour, life around the Moon. Thales Alenia Space is at the side of ESA for the development of Lunar View, Lunar Link and Lunar I-Hab, the next home for international astronauts in space. The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center, United Arab Emirates space Agency, awarded Thales Alenia Space a contract to build the Emirates airlock as their prime contractor and recently the program has kicked off the early design phase for the Gateway Crew and Science Airlock that will be delivered on Artemis VI. Meanwhile, in Turin, the manufacturing activities are about to begin to proceed with the production of Lunar I-Hab and the design of the Lunar View tunnel. In Cannes, Thales Alenia Space’s teams are working on Lunar Link and Lunar View.
Our contributions on the lunar surface:
Multi-Purpose Habitat © Thales Alenia Space/Briot
At the end of 2023, the Italian Space Agency selected Thales Alenia Space to develop the lunar Multi-Purpose Habitat that will be the first permanent outpost on the Moon.
Based on an architecture incorporating liveable room and airlock functionality, plus mobility capability, this habitat will ensure the availability of vital resources (water, power…) stored or generated on the Moon’s surface. These new infrastructures are intended to offer the crew the possibility of working in complete safety and living in a comfortable lunar environment.
ARGONAUT © Thales Alenia Space/Briot
Last month, our company was also awarded a major contract by the European Space Agency to manufacture a lunar lander for cargo delivery. Dubbed Argonaut, the lander will fly to the Moon and land on its surface assuring the European autonomous access to the Moon. It is a pivotal moment for Europe’s autonomy in space exploration! Planned to be launched from the 2030s, Argonaut will deliver cargo, infrastructure and scientific instruments to the Moon’s surface. The first mission is envisioned to deal with delivery of dedicated navigation and telecommunication payloads as well as energy generation and storage system, as European enterprises to explore the Lunar southern area.
About Lunar Gateway:
ARTEMIS © Thales Alenia Space
This outpost in lunar orbit is one of the pillars of NASA’s Artemis program, supporting sustainable exploration to the Moon and beyond.
The Gateway, weighing about 40 metric tons, will be automatically assembled piece by piece and will be placed in a near rectilinear halo polar orbit (NRHO)* around the Moon. The configuration will mainly comprise habitation modules for the crew equipped with docking ports, power and propulsion systems, logistics modules, communications with the Earth and Moon, and robotic arm and docking ports. It is not intended for permanent occupancy, but as it evolves, it will be able to host 4-person crews for periods of one to three months.
Gaining new experiences on and around the Moon will prepare NASA to send the first humans to Mars as early as 2030s, and the Gateway will play a vital role in this process.
*NRHO: an eccentric orbit with an apogee at 70,000 km and a perigee at 3,000 km, enabling the space station to revolve around the Moon at the same speed our natural satellite, so that from Earth it will be seen as a lunar HALO.
Quelle: Thales Alenia Space