Italy is to make two modules for the
future gateway space station orbiting the moon in NASA's Artemis
program, sources said Wednesday.
The modules will be among the main ones at the future space
station.
They will be made by Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture
between aerospace firms Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%).
The modules are the I-Hab (International Habitat), which will
house the astronauts, and the Esprit, for communications and
supplies.
They constitute the European Space Agency's (ESA) contribution
to the Artemis program.
The first tranche of the contract for I-Hab, signed with ESA, is
worth some 36 million euros out of an overall total of 327
million.
Development of Esprit has already started and the relevant
contact is expected to be signed by the end of this year.
With the Artemis program, NASA says it will land the first woman
and next man on the Moon by 2024, using innovative technologies
to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.
Then, it says it will use whatit learns on and around the Moon
to take the next giant leap - sending astronauts to Mars.
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