Inflatable spacecraft deploys

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

The world's first inflatable spacecraft has successfully made it into space and inflated, says Bigelow Aerospace. The craft is a 9-foot wide model of what they hope will become the first commercial space hotel.

 

The company plans on launching six to ten similar test craft into orbit, and then finally the inflatable hotel in 2012. Unfortunately, no suitable delivery vehicle for passengers has been developed, so the company is sponsoring a $50 million prize for the first company to demonstrate a reusable capsule capable of carrying 5 passengers.

 

http://www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=dn9546

[silkworm]

I saw this. While I like it, I'm worried about it getting in the way, and also worried about what would happen if it gets hit by a small meteorite or some other space debris.

 

I hope it's successful though.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

It's reinforced with Kevlar and such in case of space debris.

[silkworm]

Oh sweet.

 

I wonder how big it's going to be when finished and what the plan is to assemble.

[Rocket Man]

$50m, it sounds like the x-prize all over again.

[padren]

$50m, it sounds like the x-prize all over again.

 

The challenge of the x-prize is nothing compared to this feat - spaceship one can at most leave the upper atmosphere and freefall back to Earth...and has nowhere near the energy to deliver anything to an object in stable orbit.

 

The height spaceship one reaches is not even considered high enough to reach a stable orbit due to reminents of the atmosphere which would cause drag, let alone the forward velocity.

 

 

I really hope there is serious competition for this project, though $50m will be like winning $5 for building a winning monster truck from scratch...the real prize will be being the first affordable private sector orbital delivery system.

[calbiterol]

I really hope there is serious competition for this project, though $50m will be like winning $5 for building a winning monster truck from scratch...the real prize will be being the first affordable private sector orbital delivery system.

 

As do I - and I'm quite glad to see that the test went successfully.

 

However, I'm not sure that's quite a good analogy to use. While that's nowhere near enough to break even, it's not ridiculously small either. For example / comparison, SpaceShipOne cost $30 million or so to develop, and for those not familiar with it, the X Prize was a $10 million purse. And, in addition to this, the whole point is that Bigelow needs a passenger ship to space, and the first one to do it has a much higher chance of getting the contract, assuming the later successes aren't vastly superior in performance.

 

So perhaps a better analogy would be winning $10 000 in a race for a car that cost you $100 000 to design and build, but then being able to give people super-fast rides to hotels and airports in it at grossly inflated prices. (Sounds kinda like a limo service on steroids, doesn't it?)

 

Cheers.

[CPL.Luke]

I think spaceship 2 is supposed to be a competitor in the bigelow contract, among a few others that aren't of any special note.

[calbiterol]

With the kevlar reinforcement (and other such precautions), it's speculated by some that this wouldn't just be relatively safe from space debris, but that it would be more safe than existing solid-shell space stations.

 

I'm curious as to how the test ones hold up, but if they substantiate that claim, it would be quite an accomplishment - one that might bring about a paradigm shift in space station design. It also might effect how spacecraft are constructed - anything inflatable is vastly cheaper to launch to space than something full-size. This could also lead to a super-massive orbital construction facility for interplanetary spacecraft assembly, which if you ask me, would be the single largest step towards a practical manned mission to Mars.

[CPL.Luke]

Nasa launched a test sattelite into space way back in the nineties that was essentially designed to test how different materials hold up in space, they found that cloth tends to hold up better than metal.

 

I guess the cloth performs so well because it doesn't crack when its hit by space debris, making repairs alot easier to carry out (ducktape anyone)

[calbiterol]

(ducktape anyone)

 

HAH!

 

You hit the nail on the head with that post, Cpl.Luke.

[Teotihuacan]

The header might be a little misleading, because the first inflatable satellite was an early launch of the Telstar program in 1960.

 

It had also the misfortune of a puncture, not long after being deployed in orbit. The winter sky was really crisp, everyone went out to look. It was easy to see because of the zig-zag motion, and the speed with which it flew by.

 

I don't know if NASA or AT&T ever patented or not, but that "accident" is probably why inflatables haven't been tried before this.

 

[calbiterol]

Satellite is different from spacecraft.

 

And there is no arguing that this is the first of its kind - I am not familiar with this 1960 Telstar program lauch, but just the fact that this is a private-sector space station prototype is a HUGE accomplishment.

[Carthagenian]

... worried about what would happen if it gets hit by a small meteorite or some other space debris....

 

I read a science fiction story, maybe 15 or 20 years ago, in which they used small ballons to find and temporarily block small punctures. The escaping air just pushed the drifting balloon over the hole and air pressure kept it blocked.

 

(In fact I remember another story in which vast numbers of people migrated off Earth to live in orbiting inflatable spheres with complete and closed ecological systems, a sort of space 'farm' if you will)

 

I'm new here and a non-scientist, but it seems to me it doesn't take much of a patch to seal in air at 15 pounds per square inch.

 

I also remember in Aliens 4, the monster was sucked out into space through a fist sized hole in the hull. I'm thinking human skin, let alone alien armor, can stand up to 15 pounds per square inch well enough that there is no way a person or monster could be sucked through the hole. I'm thinking they might get a hicky or burst blood vessels in the skin. Any engineers out there, or maybe a doctor, who know what hard vaccuum over a 3 in diameter area does to a human being? Is it crack crunch splort and out into space thing, or more along the line of 'ok, hand me that metal plate to put over the hole before I need a skin graft here' kind of thing?

[JohnB]

I remember reading back in 1990 that a company was offering to put man on Mars by 2000 using inflatable spacecraft. The cost then was around $4 Billion.

 

The biggest hitch was the 1 in 3 chance of coming home again.

[D H]

The header might be a little misleading, because the first inflatable satellite was an early launch of the Telstar program in 1960.

 

Even more applicable is the Transhab, which was to be a module on the ISS. NASA did patent that technology: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6321746.PN.&OS=PN/6321746&RS=PN/6321746

 

It is this technology that Bigelow is using for its inflatable. Bigelow licensed it from NASA, obtaining exclusive rights via a Space Act agreement.

[Rexus]

Umm, I doubt you'll need to worry about a puncture with this much production values >.>

[D H]

More news regarding Bigelow:

 

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/02/22/65477.aspx

BIGELOW SHOOTS FOR THE MOON

 

Even as Bigelow Aerospace gears up for launching its second prototype space station into orbit, the company has set its sights on something much, much bigger: a project to assemble full-blown space villages at a work site between Earth and the moon, then drop them to the lunar surface, ready for immediate move-in.