Alex McColgan

So, while there are several missions proposed up until 2028, including several piloted missions, they depend on the success of the first missions and whether NASA continues to get the budget it's getting from the US government.

At this point though, I can't envisage it not going ahead, barring total disaster.

as China are hot on America's heels and have equally ambitious sights set on the moon and beyond.

And America's efforts are probably spurred on by China's advances in space.

We might have a good old-fashioned space race on our hands.

Now, while this is done in the name of science, with the billions of tons of precious metals in space, and with the progress in technology space missions bring, you could certainly see this being commercially viable, as well as being important in a militaristic sense, and you can be sure neither party wants to be left behind on this one.

Going back to Gateway, NASA intends to start with the basics, so the first phase of Gateway's construction will focus on installing the power and propulsion modules, to expand it later with the Halo module, which will be a very basic space habitat which will allow the stay of at least 30 days for a crew of 4 people.

During the construction process of Gateway, NASA will send a rover to the lunar south pole.

The rover's special task is to map the location of water trapped at the bottom of the craters, so we can better understand just how much is there and to see how pure it is.

This is because one of the proposed places for a settlement on the moon is around its south pole, where the presence of water ice has been confirmed, hidden at the bottom of eternally dark craters which protect the ice from the sun's rays.

These craters could be perfect candidates for a possible habitat, as they would protect astronauts residing there too.

The peaks around the craters, on the other hand, would be exposed to the most amount of sunlight, allowing solar arrays to capture energy from the Sun more easily for power and for the cultivation of plants.

Remember, solar arrays wouldn't be so effective anywhere else on the Moon due to its days that last a month, and two weeks in the dark isn't so useful there.

Although we know from previous missions that water does exist at the bottom of the South Pole craters, we don't have a good handle on how much, as the lack of light there makes observations from space impossible.

This is going to be one of the obstacles the rover will need to overcome.

It will have to travel into a crater on battery power alone, and leave again before it runs out, so that the rover can charge them up again using the solar panels.

The design of the rover is still pending, and in fact it will be picked as part of a design contest proposed by NASA to different companies.

Once Gateway is built, NASA plans to launch the Artemis III mission, whose crew will be stationed at Gateway, using the Orion module to expand the space station's living space.

scientists will be able to study the effect on astronauts outside the substantial protection of the Earth's magnetosphere.

During these short stays, they will test whether radiation exposure can be reduced to an acceptable amount.