Lunar portal station to push the most powerful electric engine NASA completed the first round of testing

A diagram of the Lunar Gateway.

The Electron Power Engine System, a key module of NASA’s Lunar Gateway project, has completed its first round of testing, demonstrating its 6,000-watt power to operate the large lunar orbiting spacecraft in the future.

The Lunar Gateway Station is part of NASA’s Artemis lunar landing project and will operate in lunar orbit not only as a staging area for astronauts landing on the Moon and returning to Earth from the Moon, but NASA also intends to use it as a staging infrastructure for future landings on Mars.

This large project is planned to be launched in multiple modules to reach the established orbit one by one, and finally assembled together in orbit. The first step is to launch the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO), and the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE), two important modules.

This power system PPE by NASA and supplier aerospace technology company Maxar Technologies, Busek Co. is a Hall effect (Hall effect) engine, also called ion engine, using electromagnetic fields to accelerate ion gas to generate thrust. The system combines electronic components made by Maxar, and four Busek-made BHT-600 thrusters.

This test performed multiple start-up and shutdown operations, as well as simulations of other in-flight conditions, to demonstrate that the system can operate stably and maintain the Lunar Portal Station in lunar orbit.

The modules were subjected to multiple tests, of which this was the first. The HAL and PPE modules are scheduled to lift off on a Falcon Series Heavy rocket in 2024.

The other two modules – the refueling, infrastructure and telecommunications module (ESPRIT), and the international habitation module (I-HAB) – will be developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and NASA in partnership, with liftoff scheduled for 2026 and 2027.

NASA said the PPE will be the most powerful electric propulsion engine ever built for a spacecraft, and it will provide the power to operate the Lunar Gateway Station on the lunar orbiting path, setting the stage for further human exploration of the lunar surface.