Airbus to develop concepts for moon-orbiting space station

The NASA led project, which as well as ESA involves the Russian, Canadian, and Japanese space agencies, plans to use the base  as a staging post for missions to Mars and beyond. NASA plans to launch the first module - the central power propulsion element (PPE) – into lunar orbit in the early 2020's.

As previously reported by The Engineer a number of private companies including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Bigelow Aerospace, Sierra Nevada Corporation, Orbital ATK, are developing concepts for the space-station

Airbus has been asked to develop concepts for the space station’s habitation and research module as well as for an infrastructure element for refuelling, docking and telecommunications, which will also serve as an airlock for scientific equipment.

Oliver Juckenhöfel, head of On-Orbit Services and Exploration at Airbus said that its initial designs, which will be presented  at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Bremen in October 2018, will draw heavily on the lessons leaned through flagship projects such as the Columbus space laboratory, the ATV space transporter and the European service module for Orion.