Unless someone one day writes a "tell all" account we'll likely never know what motivated much of the decision making. Right now though what's clear is that the CMV approach really does make the HALO side into a "minimal" habitat, with no GNC, propulsion or power generation. Apparently no space to ground communications either, which frankly seems curious.In any event it's the current path forward, and right now having NASA use FH to launch something big to a cis-lunar location seems like a no-brainer.
Quote from: sdsds on 11/15/2020 07:04 pmUnless someone one day writes a "tell all" account we'll likely never know what motivated much of the decision making. Right now though what's clear is that the CMV approach really does make the HALO side into a "minimal" habitat, with no GNC, propulsion or power generation. Apparently no space to ground communications either, which frankly seems curious.In any event it's the current path forward, and right now having NASA use FH to launch something big to a cis-lunar location seems like a no-brainer.GNC, propulsion, power and comms are all provided by the physically attached PPE. They are not missing.
Yup. Ought to make the overall Gateway cheaper and lighter for the same capability. Means it should be easier to move around to different orbits and require less stationkeeping propellant.In fact, you might be able to move Gateway into the vicinity of the James Webb Space Telescope. Something like 300-500m/s delta-v I think.