HALO, the connecting link
The NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Artemis programme, together with its international partners that include the European Space Agency (ESA) and ASI (the Italian Space Agency), is preparing to take mankind back to the Moon from 2024,
Unlike the Apollo missions of the 1970s, an intermediate stage will be used to achieve this goal, the Lunar Gateway station, placed in a cislunar orbit, will be the point from which, one by one the lunar exploration and colonisation missions will set off. This is a new outpost in space that, like the current International Space Station (ISS), will be built using the experience and technologies offered by Italian aerospace companies, notably Leonardo and its subsidiaries.
At the Turin facilities of Thales Alenia Space (a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), the same location in which many modules of the International Space Station were built the HALO (Habitation And Logistics Outpost) module is currently taking shape. The HALO is one of the two elements that will, together with the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE), make up the Lunar Gateway.
The HALO will provide the initial habitat for astronauts visiting the cislunar station, the base camp that will enable them to prepare for their onward return journeys to the Moon’s surface. It will provide the crews of Artemis missions with command, data control and management, energy storage and distribution, thermal control, communications and tracking capabilities. It will have three docking ports for incoming vehicles and future modules, plus compartments for scientific experiments and storage. When NASA’s Orion spacecraft is docked, the HALO will be able to support up to four astronauts engaged in lunar missions for a maximum of 30 days.
Thales Alenia Space is building the HALO in collaboration with the project’s prime contractor, Northrop Grumman and recently passed a first major milestone: the welding of two components of the module, a ring and a cylinder, to begin assembly of the primary structure.This first step confirms the long-standing collaboration between the two companies and their expertise in spacecraft technologies proven in flight.
The HALO’s design is derived from the Cygnus cargo spacecraft (the pressurised module of which has also been built in Italy by Thales Alenia Space since 2013) with the same diameter of 3.07m. However, the HALO will be one metre longer (seven metres overall), to provide habitable volume more effectively for the crews. Thales Alenia Space has been commissioned to design and build the HALO’s primary structure (the pressurised module), the pressure control system for the module and vestibule, part of the protection system against micrometeorites and the interface with NASA docking systems.
The company is also involved in the Artemis programme to create other elements of the Lunar Gateway: it was selected by the ESA as prime contractor for the cislunar station’s I-HAB and ESPRIT modules and is partnering with other aerospace companies in the development of satellite technologies for Earth-Moon telecommunications, as well as the successor to the Lunar Excursion Module used in the Apollo missions, enabling astronauts to land and take off from the Moon’s surface.