There are five Earth-moon libration (Lagrange) points (L1, L2, L3, L4, and L5). NASA is considering L2 as the spot in which to locate this space station.
L2 serves as a lunar-stationary (or lunar-synchronous point) similar to the way that communications satellites in geostationary orbit stay above one point on Earth.
The YouTube video What are the Lagrange points? (as seen above) explains these 5 balance points between the Moon and the Earth (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD9qx6ZKc6k)
This L2 point remains in the same spot (stationary) relative to the Moon. That is, the L2 point will always be located on the far-side of the Moon.
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Space.com begins by stating, "There appears to be support within NASA to position astronauts at an Earth-moon libration point to bolster the space agency’s plans of pushing beyond low-Earth orbit with its Orion spacecraft design."
And, "Anchoring hardware and a crew at the Earth-moon L2 "gateway" would offer many benefits, advocates say. One of them is building on multinational cooperation honed at the International Space Station (ISS)."
And, the Houston blog states, "The plans call for NASA to build an inflatable facility at the L-2 point beyond the moon — this is one of five LaGrange points in the space around the Earth-moon system that have stable gravity. Which means that if you put an object there it won’t move much, and therefore won’t need much fuel to keep it there."
This is a very nice plan, if NASA decides to use it, because it allows for the exploration of the Moon and for much easier travel back and forth to the planet Mars and to various asteroids in our solar system.
Such an international effort also allows many countries to join with the United States in such a venture. Such countries as Russia, Japan, and Canada, and the European Union would be prime partners in such a venture. They are already contributing to the International Space Station.
Many other countries with fledgling space programs would also be welcome to join such a program to establish a way-station, or lunar gateway as is being stated, on the far-side of the Moon.
The only problem is stated at the end of the Houston blog, which is "… NASA needs more money to actually do anything with humans beyond low-Earth orbit. It’s difficult to envision NASA getting substantially more money than it presently receives considering the financial challenges the country faces."
So, it sounds good on paper, but the United States needs to get its financial house in order before something like this will be financially possible. It is already technically possible, just not financially possible.
So to do this, the United States needs political leaders that are willing to make tough choices to return the country to financial stability.
