@PopularMechanics _ July/August 2019 63Rocket liftoff was perfect and everything is going according to
plan. Now the spacecraft nears the moon and prepares to dock at
a fuel depot in high lunar orbit. At this space-based truck stop, it
tops off its tanks with propellant manufactured from a factory on
the lunar surface, and heavy with fuel, takes off again for the long
journey to its final destination.
Do you believe this scenario? NASA does. And the agency is
already engaged in the most audacious project in its history. The
goal: turn ambitions of moon-made rocket fuel and a mission to
Mars into reality.
NASA’s Gateway program is the first stepping-stone on a journey
that uses the moon to connect humanity to Mars. The new Gate-
way spacecraft will be a workstation in elliptical orbit around the
moon, a remote office that astronauts will access by commuting to
and from the moon’s surface. Gateway’s immediate purpose will be
to support lunar exploration. But as it grows into a refueling depot910
IT’S THE
YEAR 2037.
A SPACESHIP
CARRYING
AMERICAN
ASTRONAUTS
HAS JUST
EMBARKED
ON AN
HISTORIC
MISSION
TO MARS.
APOLLO (^11)
(^50)
TH
A
N
IN
EV
SR
RA
Y
THE GATEWAY PROGRAM BY CHUCK THOMPSON