LUNAR GATEWAY INTERNATIONAL HABITAT (I-HAB) INDUSTRY DAY 

 

Date: WEDNESDAY, 20 May 2020

Time: 10:00 - 12:00 CET (online presentations)

          14:00 - 18:00 CET (Bilateral meetingS with THALES ALENIA SPACE ITALIA)

 

 

About 

Thales Alenia Space Italia and ESA invite Industry, SMEs and start-ups to participate to the ‘Gateway International Habitat Module (I-HAB) Industry Day’. The event will take place on Wednesday 20 May, virtually due to COVID-19 travel limitations.


The main aim of this event is to inform industry on the content of the I-HAB Project, the opportunities for subcontractors and suppliers, as well as procurement approach and timing, and to foster the dialogue between the Prime (TAS-Italia) and sub contractors in view of the forthcoming TAS-Italia ITTs for the procurement of I-HAB items, assemblies and activities.
 

Gateway I-HAB background

The Cislunar Gateway is a human-tended infrastructure orbiting the Moon in a so-called Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO). One of the ESA contributions to the Gateway is the International-Habitation (I-HAB) module.

The I-HAB module will provide:

  • A habitable system capable to maintain an environment suitable for sustaining human life throughout the duration of a mission and capable to accommodate needed crew systems 
  • Docking ports and resources to attached elements, namely other pressurized modules
  • Resources to scientific experiments accommodated in the interior and on the exterior of I-HAB
  • External attachment points for the Gateway Robotic arm and internal attachment points for Gateway Internal Robots, capable to perform simple tasks while the Gateway is un-crewed

I-HAB encompasses contributions from International Space Agencies, namely JAXA, NASA and CSA, mainly for life support subsystem, thermal loop pumps, power batteries, safety equipment, common Gateway items and the external robotics interfaces.
 

I-HAB is part of the E3P Period 2 activities that have been approved at Space19+. 


All proposed activities are ambitious but affordable and have a strong inspirational dimension with an integrated rationale. The implementation approach is incremental, as new activities are based on European past exploration technologies and knowhow. The programmatic approach is based on realistic international cooperation at ‘campaign level’, with ESA leadership in selected missions. The outcomes of the programme will expand the benefits to new areas like AI-enabled robotics and sustaining life in harsh environments.