With only a few years left to operate the International Space Station, NASA is already creating a new research a laboratory that can operate outside our planet. So in Turin, Italy, engineers are conducting stress tests on the main module of Gateway, a future lunar station.
Only recently NASA showed the Gateway concept, and now information about the implementation of the project has emerged. The main module of the station is called HALO - short for Habitation and Logistics Outpost. It is expected to be equipped with the most powerful solar-electric propulsion system ever created.
HALO will include life support systems for astronauts, simulators and equipment for scientific experiments. With the help of the station, astronomers intend to explore the secrets of deep space.
NASA and its partners intend to send HALO into lunar orbit using SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket next year, and the station will welcome its first visitors around 2028.