The U.S.-Canada Partnership in Space Exploration

 NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) have reached an agreement to collaborate on the Gateway, an outpost circling the Moon that would offer critical support for a long-term return of personnel to the lunar surface as part of NASA's Artemis program. This Gateway agreement reinforces the United States' comprehensive endeavor to involve international partners in sustainable lunar exploration as part of the Artemis program and to demonstrate technology required for human trips to Mars. CSA will supply the Gateway's exterior robotics system, which includes a next-generation robotic arm known as Canadarm3. CSA will also provide robotic interfaces for Gateway modules, allowing for the installation of payloads such as the Gateway's first two scientific equipment. The agreement also confirms NASA's commitment to providing two crew options for Canadian astronauts on Artemis missions, one to the Gateway and one on Artemis II. "Canada was the first international partner to commit to advancing the Gateway in early 2019, they signed the Artemis Accords in October, and now we're excited to formalize this partnership for lunar exploration," said Jim Bridenstine, president of NASA. "This agreement represents an evolution of our cooperation with CSA providing the next generation of robotics that have supported decades of missions in space on the space shuttle and International Space Station, and now, for Artemis."

CSA will oversee the entire external robotics process, including engineering and operations

Canadarm3 will go end-to-end to reach numerous areas of the Gateway's façade, where its anchoring "hand" will connect to specifically developed interfaces. A commercial logistics supply flight from the United States is scheduled to arrive at the lunar base in 2026. "Gateway will enable a robust, sustainable, and eventually permanent human presence on the lunar surface where we can prove out many of the skills, operations, and technologies that will be key for future human Mars missions," said Kathy Lueders, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations. The Gateway, which is about one-sixth the size of the International Space Station, will serve as a way station, tens of thousands of kilometers away from the lunar surface in a near-rectilinear halo orbit. From this lunar vantage point, NASA and its international and commercial partners will perform unparalleled deep space science and technology research. It will act as a meeting place for astronauts heading to lunar orbit aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket before proceeding to low-lunar orbit and the Moon's surface.

"CSA's advanced robotics contribution with Canadarm3 builds upon our long spaceflight history together

enabling us to perform critical long-term sustainability and maintainability functions, overall inspections of the external Gateway and its attached vehicles, and servicing of external payloads in support of our worldwide research initiatives," said Dan Hartman, the Gateway program manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. "Our efforts are well underway on Gateway to integrate CSA's robotics system with arm attachment points and smaller dexterous adaptors already being incorporated into the individual Gateway modules including the PPE (power and propulsion element), HALO (habitation and logistics outpost), Gateway logistics, and international habitation element designs."NASA astronauts will board a commercially constructed lander for the final leg of their voyage to the lunar surface, and the agency has contracted with US business to develop the first two Gateway components, PPE and HALO, as well as logistics replenishment for the Gateway. In October, NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) inked a deal that solidified ESA's contributions to the Gateway, including habitation and refueling modules, as well as improved lunar communications and service modules for Orion. In March, NASA chose the first two scientific projects to fly aboard the Gateway, one from NASA and the other from ESA.

ESA created the European Radiation Sensors Array, or ERSA, while NASA's Goddard Space

Flight Center is creating the Heliophysics Environmental and Radiation Measurement Experiment Suite, or HERMES. The two small space weather stations will divide the task, with ERSA monitoring space radiation at higher energy with a focus on astronaut safety and HERMES monitoring lower energies vital to scientific research of the Sun. All of the Gateway's worldwide partners will work together to share the scientific data that will be delivered to Earth. Additional scientific collaboration payloads will be selected for flight onboard the outpost. In addition to funding lunar surface missions, the Gateway will fund efforts to test technology required for human journeys to Mars. NASA will use the Gateway to show remote management and long-term reliability of autonomous spacecraft and other technologies. According to President Biden, Canada is the United States' closest friend, partner, and ally. Over the last 150 years, our two countries have developed one of the most intimate and extended partnerships. Canada is our largest commercial partner, with approximately $2.6 billion in products and services crossing our shared border, the world's longest land border, each day, representing a nearly 20% growth over the previous year in 2022. This trade generates millions of employment on both sides of the border. Our individuals have strong personal and familial relationships, and we've collaborated to address some of the world's most pressing concerns.

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