so maybe this gives them experience for what that will require.
An international collaboration, Gateway is a human-tended, small station that will orbit the Moon. The lunar outpost is specially designed to enable deep space exploration with many capabilities for maintaining a sustained presence in space and conducting research in a deep space environment. Features like a human habitat, multiple docking ports for a variety of spacecraft, including Orion, and the ability to host experiments that will study space weather will all help contribute to future exploration efforts. Similarly, Gateway’s unique near-rectilinear halo orbit, or NRHO, was specifically chosen to help ensure the success of future Artemis missions.
There is no shortage of options for how a spacecraft could orbit the Moon, but two in particular – low lunar orbit and distant retrograde orbit – are helpful for understanding why NRHO is the right fit for Gateway.
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Meanwhile, a distant retrograde orbit provides a large, circular, and stable (or more fuel-efficient) orbit that circles the Moon every two weeks. However, what Gateway would gain in a stable orbit, it would lose in easy access to the Moon: the distant orbit would make it harder to get to the lunar surface.
A third option, NRHO, is just right for Gateway, marrying the upsides of low lunar orbit (surface access) with the benefits of distant retrograde orbit (fuel efficiency). Hanging almost like a necklace from the Moon, NRHO is a one-week orbit that is balanced between the Earth’s and Moon’s gravity. This orbit will periodically bring Gateway close enough to the lunar surface to provide simple access to the Moon’s South Pole where astronauts will test capabilities for living on other planetary bodies, including Mars. NRHO can also provide astronauts and their spacecraft with access to other landing sites around the Moon in addition to the South Pole.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/a-lunar-orbit-that-s-just-right-for-the-international-gateway
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