Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Shelter – lunar style.
Image credit: Thales Alenia Space/ASI

It is tagged as the Multi-Purpose Habitat or MPH for lunar shorthand.  MPH aims to be the first permanent outpost on the Moon.

Thales Alenia Space recently signed a contract with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to initiate activities on the concept, building upon work to develop and provide three pressurized modules dedicated to Lunar Gateway: ESPRIT and I-HAB for the European Space Agency (ESA) and HALO for Northrop Grumman.

According to NASA’s Element Initiation Review, crucial functionalities of the Artemis lunar surface architecture, such as the Italian MPH module, are being scoped out.

In line with ASI’s and NASA’s requirements, the next step will be to complete the Mission Concept Review, expected in the first quarter of 2024.

Moon encampment involves multi-nation participation.
Image credit: ESA

Life-support solutions

“This will be a key milestone to move the project forward to the next phases of critical technology design and development of the module,” explains a Thales Alenia Space statement. “Life-support solutions, even for short-to-medium durations in the inhospitable lunar environment, demand cutting-edge technologies to provide protection from regolith and survive the cold lunar nights.”

In this initial phase, adds the Thales Alenia Space statement, it will be tasked with coordinating an industrial consortium of large, small, and medium-sized companies from the national supply chain, to advance the program to its implementation phase.

Overall, the main objective is to deliver a secure, comfortable, and multifunctional habitation module for astronauts, able to interface with other systems and components in the Artemis architecture.