About That "Gateway Is Not A Space Station" Thing
WRT the whole "Gateway is not a space station since it is only periodically occupied" thing. Skylab was our "first space station" and it was always human-tended. This FGB/Node 1 configuration was human-tended for years but we called it a "international space station". Just sayin' pic.twitter.com/JCMIQQ6CsX
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) March 13, 2019
Great, than we will be throwing up the most expensive satellite ever, that just happens to be able to hold humans from time to time. Ultimately putting fiscal pressure on keeping ISS alive it will probably finally lead to a break in humanities 19 year unbroken space habitation record as ISS is cancelled. And its good that its not going to be called a space-station, especially a second-generation space station, because it does nothing to advance the currently unacceptable and open questions regarding human space habitation in partial-G environments (a gap remaining between basically 0 and 1 G that needs to be addressed to see how humans adapt to long duration planetary adaptation). Oh, and what exactly can this non-station be used for that a smaller, better outfitted lunar science satellite could not for at a 10th the price. And then there is that whole fuel depot thing regarding yet unproven, unfound, unaccessable and unrecoverable lunar resources. Especially propellants for spacecraft that don’t have standardized cryogenic propulsion systems – who’s going to use it? And then there is the whole missing and open human surface operations questions of sustainability regarding what and why be there in the first place. Not saying that we should not go to the moon, but the true sustainable arguments have yet to be placed in the forefront.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean —neither more nor less.”
Lewis Carroll, “Through the Looking Glass”