Inflatable space stations take off

Read our interview with Robert Bigelow from Bigelow Aerospace: http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg19726381.900-interview-from-ufo...

Bigelow Aerospace has already sent two prototypes of its inflatable space station into orbit and plans to start leasing its space stations in 2010.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• inflatable
• space
• station
• Bigelow
• Aerospace
• orbit
• Genesis
• new
• scientist
• newscientist

[DamienZshadow]

Wow, this is awesome. Just another new innovation to help extend our reaches further into space. Take off is the most costly and difficult part of any space mission, so making things lighter and smaller is a huge step forward. But what I'm wondering is what the hell is it made out of? Hopefully this 'balloon' can be enough to deflect space debri and piercing particles traveling a neck breaking speeds around in the same orbit they are.

[newscientistvideo]

Apparently these spacecraft are made of several layers of vectran, a material twice as strong as kevlar. Bigelow claims that the flexible shells are more resistant to tiny metorite impacts than hard shells. Pretty amazing!

Sandrine Ceurstemont

NewScientist Editor

[702LTR450]

bigelow is the shit, im trying to get a job there now.

[SmartAlx]

BTW The inflatable module was originated by NASA. It was intended to be a habitation module for the ISS. They scrapped it but Bigelow saw the value. The fabric is made of many layers of various materials, some self healing. It's very sturdy. If I had to choose between the shuttle and Bigelow's Genesis 1, I would take shelter in Genesis 1. Even during a solar storm. If they really did put water between the layers it would offer some protection against gamma and cosmic radiation.

[SmartAlx]

We had two of those habitation modules at the ends of two extendable tethers. The entire ship can be spun to provide artificial gravity. The tethers allow the arms to expand depending on the pull of gravity you want. Our craft could go to Mars and provide Mars like gravity on the way and on the way back to Earth it could gradually extend till it provided Earth like gravity, allowing the astronauts to gradually adapt to the gravity they need.

[SmartAlx]

Bigelow actually was actually planning on using these in a vehicle that spins. I was on a student team that worked side by side with Bob Bigelow on his space hotel concept 12 years ago. We visited his facility in Vegas. Very very cool. We went inside a model of this inflatable module. I won't detail his hotel concept but you can see ours here.

h++p://arch.uh.edu/programs/gr­aduateprog/spacegradprog/index­.php

[nbrado]

@newscientistvideo I would say much safer than a rigid structure, an EXCELLENT idea.

[DamienZshadow]

@svb300 Hell yea! And after you say that I'll be there tapping my foot on that red Martian soil asking, "What took you? lol

[svb300]

@DamienZshadow Cheers mate!!!! To the future!!!! I cant wait for the day I can step foot on the Moon. When I first step down on the Moon I'm going to say "I came. I saw. I conquered."

Im also going to repeat that when I first step foot on Mars and any other world there after muahahaha!!!!!

[DamienZshadow]

@svb300 Yea! That's exactly what I was thinking about! Why this hasn't been engineered into the standard for space stations a long time ago is beyond me. It was conceived of in the 70s and should have been tested by now. That would be the first real step to long term duration in space. The next step would be the Bernal Sphere!

[svb300]

@DamienZshadow Yep yur talking about a Torus Wheel. Look up the Stanford Torus on Wikipedia. Its called centrifigul force. Thats what Bigelow needs to do indeed. The ISS is going to become obsolete by 2020 cause of Bigelow. But thats the future though so get used to it NASA!!!!!

[UnTiedMusicStudio]

My original wedding rings are on Genesis II as part of their "Fly Your Stuff" program :) We had new rings made for our 15th anniversary and decided to fly our original rings into space for our 20th. pics etc at untiedmusic dit com slash 20years

[DamienZshadow]

@monokhem Tomorrow looks like a bright future for humanity. Maybe someday we'll even meet in space.