Space station to get US$18m inflatable balloon-like room
Source: Agencies |
January 18, 2013, Friday
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NASA is partnering with a commercial space company in a bid to replace the cumbersome "metal cans" that now serve as astronauts' homes in space with inflatable bounce-house-like habitats that can be deployed on the cheap.
A US$17.8 million test project will send to the International Space Station an inflatable room that can be compressed into a 2.1-meter tube for delivery, officials said on Wednesday in a news conference at North Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace.
If the module proves durable during two years at the space station, it could open the door to habitats on the moon and missions to Mars, NASA engineer Glen Miller said.
The agency chose Bigelow for the contract because it is the only company working on inflatable technology, said NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver.
Founder and President Robert Bigelow, who made his fortune in the hotel industry before getting into the space business in 1999, framed the gambit as an out-of-this-world real estate venture. He hopes to sell his spare tire habitats to scientific companies and wealthy adventurers looking for space hotels.
NASA will install the 4-meter, blimp-like module in a space station port by 2015. Bigelow plans to begin selling stand-alone space homes the next year.
The new technology provides three times as much room as the existing aluminum models, and is also easier and less costly to build, Miller said.
Artist renderings of the module resemble a tinfoil clown nose grafted onto the main station. It is hardly big enough to be called a room. Miller described it as a large closet with padded white walls and gear and gizmos strung from two central beams.
Garver said sending a small inflatable tube into space will be dramatically cheaper than launching a full-sized module.
"Let's face it; the most expensive aspect of taking things in space is the launch," she said. "So the magnitude of importance of this for NASA really can't be overstated."
Astronauts will test the ability of the bladder, known as the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, to withstand heat, radiation, debris and other assaults, Garver said.
A US$17.8 million test project will send to the International Space Station an inflatable room that can be compressed into a 2.1-meter tube for delivery, officials said on Wednesday in a news conference at North Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace.
If the module proves durable during two years at the space station, it could open the door to habitats on the moon and missions to Mars, NASA engineer Glen Miller said.
The agency chose Bigelow for the contract because it is the only company working on inflatable technology, said NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver.
Founder and President Robert Bigelow, who made his fortune in the hotel industry before getting into the space business in 1999, framed the gambit as an out-of-this-world real estate venture. He hopes to sell his spare tire habitats to scientific companies and wealthy adventurers looking for space hotels.
NASA will install the 4-meter, blimp-like module in a space station port by 2015. Bigelow plans to begin selling stand-alone space homes the next year.
The new technology provides three times as much room as the existing aluminum models, and is also easier and less costly to build, Miller said.
Artist renderings of the module resemble a tinfoil clown nose grafted onto the main station. It is hardly big enough to be called a room. Miller described it as a large closet with padded white walls and gear and gizmos strung from two central beams.
Garver said sending a small inflatable tube into space will be dramatically cheaper than launching a full-sized module.
"Let's face it; the most expensive aspect of taking things in space is the launch," she said. "So the magnitude of importance of this for NASA really can't be overstated."
Astronauts will test the ability of the bladder, known as the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, to withstand heat, radiation, debris and other assaults, Garver said.
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