Context

• Recently, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)has finalized the contract to design the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO)for its Gateway Lunar Orbiting Outpost.

About Gateway Lunar Orbit outpost: 

• It is a small spaceship that will orbit around the Moon meant for astronaut missions to the Moon and later for expeditions to Mars.
• It will act as a temporary office for astronauts by providing living quarters for astronauts, a lab for science and research, ports for visiting spacecraft among others.
• The unique feature of the Gateway is that it can be moved to other orbits around the Moon to conduct more research.
• It is led by NASA in collaboration with commercial and international partners: Canada (CSA), Europe (ESA), and Japan (JAXA).
• It is expected to play a major role in NASA’s Artemis program after 2024.

The Artemis is a crewed spaceflight program of NASA that has the goal of landing “the first woman and the next man” on the Moon, specifically at the lunar south pole region by 2024.