Airbus Defence and Space has announced that it has delivered the first two units of the key electrical subsystem for the HALO module of NASA’s lunar Gateway Space Station.
The Gateway’s Power Management and Distribution Subsystem (PMAD) will manage the generation, storage, and distribution of the station’s electrical power—equivalent to the output of seven average-sized households on Earth—to its various modules and visiting spacecraft. According to Airbus, its modular design will ensure redundancy, adaptability, and in-orbit maintainability throughout the Gateway’s anticipated 15-year lifespan. The PMAD will be located in the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) module which, along with the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE), will be one of the first two Gateway modules to launch.
Northrop Grumman, the HALO module’s prime contractor, awarded the contract to develop the PMAD system to Airbus Crisa, an Airbus affiliate company, in January 2022. At the time, Airbus Crisa CEO Fernando Gómez-Carpintero stated that the contract was worth more than $50 million.
The PMAD was designed, integrated, and tested in the Airbus Crisa facility in Tres Cantos, Spain. On 16 December, Airbus announced that it had delivered the first two model sets of the subsystem to Northrop Grumman. The two PMAD model sets will be used for HALO integration testing. After that, the sets will become part of an on-ground replica of the HALO module, which will be used for Gateway mission operation support activities.
In addition to the PMAD, Airbus is responsible for another critical component of NASA’s lunar ambitions. In November 2014, ESA awarded a €390 million contract to Airbus Defence and Space for the development of the first European Service Module for NASA’s Orion spacecraft. The service module provides power, propulsion, and consumables for the crewed capsule. To date, Airbus has been contracted to build a total of six European Service Modules.
