Next frontier: Private companies are building prototypes for a planned Deep Space Gateway space station to prepare crews and develop equipment for missions deeper into the solar system

摘要

The time is now approaching for humanity to consider its next steps in space. For the past two decades, manned spaceflight has revolved around the International Space Station (ISS), which has been continuously inhabited since 2000. But time is running out: after several life extensions, the ISS is currently scheduled to go out of service around 2024. It has been an outstanding success for international cooperation, composed of modules from the US, Japan, the former Soviet Union, Russia and Europe and hosting crew from 16 nations, but its position in low-Earth orbit limits the range of its operations and, to meet some of the more ambitious space exploration goals of coming decades, plans are now turning towards a rather different type of crewed outpost.