NASA Exploration Augmentation Module 3D model

cgtrader

The Exploration Augmentation Module was a notional element of the early-2010s post-Constellation restructuring of NASA's human spaceflight program. The EAM, as studied, would be composed of an MPLM-derived section along with a smaller transition section with radial docking ports and an airlock. It was intended to serve as an interim small habitat to extend the Orion spacecraft's capabilities, prior to a longer-term but then-undefined exploration program. As such, it was sized to fit in the comanifested payload capacity of an Orion flying on a Block 1 SLS. An EAM would allow Orion to support crewed missions to lunar orbit between 60 and 90 days in length, and offered additional docking ports for supporting vehicles. A permanent lunar orbital station may have eventually been built around an EAM or EAM-derived elements. This concept work later led to the lunar Gateway station now in development.