Russia Plans To Collaborate With NASA To Construct The First Space Station On The Moon

Russia will shortly announce its plans to collaborate with NASA on an international human outpost close to the moon, according to a Popular Mechanics' report.

NASA originally designed the Deep Space Gateway (DSG) as part of a five-stage plan to send people to Mars. When it came out that the organization was thinking whether to refocus on the moon instead of Mars earlier this month, some people worried that the DSG concept might be abandoned — but now it appears that will not be the case.

Construction on the project is predicted to start in the 2020s. European, Canadian, and Japanese space agencies are already liaising with NASA about their contributions to the DSG. It’s considered that NASA will offer access to the station through its Orion spacecraft as well as the use of the facility for exploratory missions.

In the long-term, the DSG is still planned to serve as a stepping stone to Mars. However, such an expedition is still more than a decade away. Before that, agencies will be allowed to use the station as an access point for the moon surface.

More news on Russia’s collaboration with NASA is expected to drop the upcoming weekend at the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide in Australia. Igor Komarov, head of the Roscosmos State Corporation, will announce the partnership during a meeting with other international space agencies.

That isn’t the only big announcement to be made at the conference. Yesterday, Elon Musk teased the unveiling of “major improvements” and “unexpected applications” on his Twitter during his address to attendees on Friday.

Reference: Futurism