Astronauts enter world's first inflatable space habitat

[WhiteTara]

Source: ap

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Space station astronauts opened the world's first inflatable space habitat Monday and floated inside.

NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams swung open the door to the newly expanded chamber and was the first to enter. He said it was pristine but cold inside.

The room — called the Bigelow Activity Activity Module, or BEAM — arrived at the International Space Station in April, packed in the trunk of a capsule loaded with supplies. It was inflated just over a week ago.

Mission Control said the temperature registered 44 degrees, as anticipated, at one end of the 13-foot-long, 10 ½ -foot-wide chamber. There was no trace of condensation, Williams noted.

For now, BEAM is empty and dark; Williams and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka wore head lamps to illuminate the crinkled, silver walls. They collected air samples, took expansion measurements and made sure the air-pressurization tanks were empty, before exiting and closing the door behind them.

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[MADem]

1. You forgot the link...

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/astronauts-enter-worlds-first-inflatable-space-habitat/

Here is one from CBS, w/pic.

NASA wants to make certain the multi-layered BEAM - an experiment led by Bigelow Aerospace - can withstand wide temperature fluctuations, radiation and debris impacts over time. It will remain at the orbiting lab for two years.

The Nevada-based Bigelow is developing even bigger and better inflatable habitats for space travel. Until BEAM, the company founded by hotel entrepreneur Robert Bigelow had flown only a pair of inflatable satellites in orbit for testing.

Both Bigelow and NASA envision using pumped-up habitats for Mars expeditions. Inflatable spacecraft are lighter and more compact for launch than the traditional metal housing for astronauts, yet provide roomier living quarters once expanded.

[WhiteTara]

14. Thanks for adding the link

It must have been late for my brain!

[longship]

2. Here is Bigelow's next step, the B330.

It is a bold move.


Stick a VASIMR drive on that sucker, spin it for some centripetal gravity and one has a Hermes mission to Mars.

[Festivito]

6. Fun expansion technique. Wrong design for spinning. That flat section would bow.

A lot of constant force out not to mention the gyrations due to people being in different positions all the time. Could spin a couple free floaters from a rope.

[Android3.14]

7. Coriolis would also be unmanageable for such a small module

Definitely not a spin-friendly design, unless you connected two or more together with a long cable and spun them like a bolo.

[longship]

8. Yup, you guys are right about that, wrong design for spinning.

Just couldn't resist "The Martian" reference.

[Just reading posts]

9. Impressive.

[longship]

10. BTW, absolutely LOVE the entertainment display.

No doubt it shows nightly viewings of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951 version), "Forbidden Planet", "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan", and lots of sleazy, low budget fifties SciFi films. "Gog" would be one of them.

Of course, the supplies would include lots and lots of popcorn.

[sofa king]

12. You aren't far off.

The Bigelow design is simply a rehash of NASA's open-source Transhab module. It was also planned to be first used and tested on the ISS, and as the name implies, its real mission was to be a crew habitat on interplanetary missions.

The Republican Congress of 2000 specifically forbade any further NASA research into Transhab. Because Republicans are a-holes. But hey, toss it into the private sector and sixteen years later we get a one-tenth scale test model that costs twice as much. Yay, free enterprise.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TransHab

[sakabatou]

3. Next on the agenda, a bouncy castle for astronauts

[Hassin Bin Sober]

4. Yeah, and then a solar wind kicks up and blows it in to the parking lot.

[Marrah_G]

5. hehehe

[PersonNumber503602]

11. I laughed. Good job.

[valerief]

13. I don't understand. Why isn't free market, no regulations American business building

amusement parks with this thing? Cuz libertea and money.