UAE and its astronauts gear up for crucial role in Nasa’s Gateway lunar space station
An Emirati astronaut is expected to launch to the Moon in the next decade – helping to place the first Arab in lunar orbit.
The astronaut would be living on Gateway, a planned station in the Moon’s orbit that would host crew before they descend on to the lunar surface.
It would offer a different view of the Solar System to that available to astronauts from the International Space Station.
The ISS has a low Earth orbit, meaning it only observes the Moon from further away.
The Gateway, which is currently being developed on ground before assembly in space can begin, would be the first station in lunar orbit.
The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai is helping supply an airlock for the project – the crucial module used by crew and cargo to enter and leave the station, and from where astronauts exit to perform spacewalks.
In exchange for its contribution, the UAE will get to send an Emirati to the Gateway.
Nasa is overseeing the project, and other space agencies contributing different modules to the station include Japan, Europe and Canada.
With the landmark deal now signed, The National looks at what a crewed mission on the international outpost would look like.
Hazza Al Mansouri, the UAE’s first astronaut, said yesterday at the Middle East Space Conference in Muscat that astronauts from around the world would receive specialist training for the airlock in the Emirates.
“We’re working to train astronauts and in future we will host astronauts from all around the world to train in the UAE for that airlock,” he said. They will also need to be trained in operating Orion – the spacecraft set to travel to the Moon and dock with the lunar station.
Maj Al Mansouri, who spent eight days on board the ISS in 2019, said astronauts would need to learn the specific technical systems of the Gateway – as they do with the ISS.
If a crew member is assigned to use a landing module – which US spacecraft manufacturers SpaceX and Blue Origin are developing – to descend on to the lunar surface, they would also need training in walking on the Moon.
While the airlock agreement announced by President Sheikh Mohamed on Sunday includes access to the Gateway for Emirati astronauts, a separate deal would need to be signed by the UAE to send its astronauts to the Moon’s surface.
Life on the Gateway would include dangers not faced on the ISS. The crew would be further from Earth, making any rescue missions more difficult, while they would also be more exposed to more solar and cosmic radiation.
“Gateway will operate in a near-rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon, far from Earth’s protective atmosphere
and magnetic fields that largely shield humans, including astronauts living on the International Space Station in lowEarth orbit, from space weather and radiation,” Nasa said.
Missions on the ISS last up to six months per assignment and the station has been occupied continuously since it became operational in 2000.
But missions on the Gateway would be for three months, with robots taking over when there is no human present, said the Canadian Space Agency, another partner in the project.
“As an artificial intelligence-based robotic system, Canadarm3 will be able to tend to the Gateway when no humans are on board, including operating science experiments aboard the lunar outpost,” the agency said.
Four crew members would be able to live on the Gateway to carry out missions.
Two could descend to the lunar surface, with the others would stay on Gateway monitoring the station’s health and their colleagues’ activities.
Emirati astronauts would have an opportunity for science investigations while on board. “The small space station will include docking ports for a variety of visiting spacecraft,
We’re working to train astronauts and will host them from all around the world to train in the UAE for that airlock
HAZZA AL MANSOURI
First Emirati astronaut
space for crew to live and work, and additional science investigations to study human health and life sciences, among other areas,” said Nasa.
“Gateway will be a critical platform for developing technology and capabilities to support future Moon and Mars exploration.”
Salem Al Marri, director general of MBRSC, told The National on Sunday that the agency was focusing on the operational aspects of the project before beginning the astronaut selection process.
“We have four astronauts and all of them will be trained,” he said. “But this is not something that we can decide at this stage and as we get closer, and we start getting into the operational elements, than we get into mission selection.”
Current UAE astronauts are Maj Al Mansouri; Sultan Al Neyadi, first Arab astronaut to perform a spacewalk and the new Minister of State for Youth; Nora Al Matrooshi, the first Emirati woman to be selected as an astronaut and Mohammed Al Mulla.
Ms Al Matrooshi and Mr Al Mulla are set to graduate from Nasa training this year.