Idk about “good idea”. Gateway as a Lunar tollbooth was a compromise at the end of a bunch of compromises. Orion’s service module is undersized, so it needs a weird Lunar orbit. Getting to that has some weird launch windows, and SLS is finicky, so pre-staged hardware (landers, resupply pods) waiting for Orion might have to loiter for weeks or months. So they’d meet up at Gateway? But big landers and no resupply pods make that station unnecessary.
My sci-fi nerd self still wants a Lunar orbital station. And surface stations. And a bunch of LEO stations, including a polar one. And an Earth-Moon L2 station. And…
Idk about “good idea”. Gateway as a Lunar tollbooth was a compromise at the end of a bunch of compromises. Orion’s service module is undersized, so it needs a weird Lunar orbit. Getting to that has some weird launch windows, and SLS is finicky, so pre-staged hardware (landers, resupply pods) waiting for Orion might have to loiter for weeks or months. So they’d meet up at Gateway? But big landers and no resupply pods make that station unnecessary.
My sci-fi nerd self still wants a Lunar orbital station. And surface stations. And a bunch of LEO stations, including a polar one. And an Earth-Moon L2 station. And…