NASA to refit container as space habitat
WASHINGTON — An aluminum cargo container, built more than 15 years ago to move large equipment to space, will be transformed into a prototype of a space habitat where astronauts would live during long missions.
The project is a step toward NASA’s next big human spaceflight project called the Deep Space Gateway, a “spaceport” in the moon’s orbit where astronauts would live for up to a year. NASA’s goal is tohave it up and running by the mid-2020s, and from there, the space agency hopes to gain some experience and develop capabilities needed to push farther into the solar system, specifically toMars.
Colorado-based Lockheed Martin, a NASA contractor, announced this month that it will refurbish the cargo space container into a habitat prototype. It won’t look likemuch on the outside — just a massive cylindrical metal container, about 21 feet long and15 feet in diameter.
The interior will be turned into living quarters, with robotics work stations for astronauts, a place to exercise and storage spaces for food, water, toiletries — “all the things you need to live and be happy in space,” said Bill Pratt, of Lockheed Martin.
Named Donatello, the cargo container was one of three built by the Italian Space Agency in the 1990s to serve as “moving vans” carrying equipment, experiments and supplies to and from the International Space Station.
Donatello was delivered to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center from Italy in 2001. While the two other cargo containers, called Leonardo and Raffaello, flew on shuttle missions to the InternationalSpace Station, Donatellowas never used.
LockheedMartin will refurbish Donatello at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The work should take about 18 months.
Although Donatello was originally built to be flown to space, the refurbished hardware won’t make it there, Pratt said. Lockheed will turn over its prototype to NASA, which will then start looking at building the actual habitat, Pratt said.
“It’s a steppingstone to the actual flight vehicle and pretty representative of the actual thing that flies,” Pratt said.
The Deep Space Gateway habitat will be docked to a spacecraft called Orion, the “exploration vehicle” that will carry astronauts to space.
Pratt said it’s still too early to say how much the prototypewould cost.