After Russia pulls out of Moon Gateway, NASA finds new partner in UAE

Five years ago, the relationship between NASA and the Russian state-owned space company was quite strong, when both parties Sign the joint statement Collaborative development of a space station orbiting the Moon, known as the Lunar Gateway, was discussed. At the time, Russia’s Roscosmos was expected to provide the airlock for the facility.

Of course, a lot has happened in the five years since. In 2020, Russia began to withdraw as NASA began to develop more concrete plans for lunar exploration under the Artemis program.

“In our view, it could be argued that the Lunar Gateway in its current form is too US-centric,” said Dmitry Rogozin, then director general of Roscosmos. “Russia will probably avoid large-scale involvement.” At the time, Rogozin also expressed disdain for NASA’s “Artemis Accords,” which established a set of guidelines for countries participating in the agency’s 21st-century lunar exploration program. principles of cooperation.

By the time Russia invades Ukraine in 2022, the country has turned to building an “International Lunar Research Station” in partnership with China. This is a parallel effort NASA’s Artemis program, which invites countries to join China and Russia in exploring the Moon.

While Russia is drifting away from NASA, nearly two dozen countries have signed multilateral agreements to join NASA’s Artemis Accords.one of the founding member statesThe United Arab Emirates is seeking further participation. Tuesday, national newspaper The UAE is in discussions with NASA to provide an airlock for the Lunar Gateway. The small Middle Eastern country has been working with Boeing on the design.

Separately, a source confirmed to Ars that the UAE has been in talks with NASA for about a year to supply the Gateway with airlocks. The first element of the tiny space station will fly in a halo orbit around the moon, likely launching in late 2024 or 2025 on a Falcon Heavy rocket. Humans will not live on the Gateway all the time, as they do on the International Space Station, but periodically. Airlocks will facilitate spacewalks.

The Islamic state is smaller than the US state of Maine, with a population of only about 9 million. However, it expresses great interest in space exploration. In June 2020, through a partnership with the University of Colorado Boulder, the UAE’s space program sent the Hope probe to Mars to study the Red Planet’s atmosphere. UAE officials say The goal of the program is to inspire younger generations to enter the fields of science, technology, engineering and medicine. At the time, only Russia, the United States, the European Union, and India had successfully put spacecraft into orbit around Mars.

Last weekend, the UAE took part in its first moon launch.Its tiny Rashid rover is a passenger White Rabbit-R lander, commercially developed by the Japanese company ispace. The mission was successfully launched on a Falcon 9 rocket and is expected to land on the moon early next year.

The country also has a small astronaut corps. In 2019, Hazza Al Mansouri flew to the International Space Station on a Soyuz rocket as a visiting astronaut for eight days. Next February, Sultan Al Neyadi is scheduled to join the Crew-6 mission, where he will spend about six months on the space station.his seat is Represented by Axiom Space. Other Emirati astronauts are training in Houston for future space missions.

Through its partnership in the Artemis Accords, the UAE is preparing to send an astronaut to the Lunar Gateway later this decade — perhaps to the lunar surface in the 2030s.