Bigelow Aerospace updates: thread 2

[Draggendrop Veteran]

^ That would be doable presently.....they should get on this right away, and let NASA play with the pending prototype attached unit for the 2 years, while Bigelow and SpaceX play with this....

[DocM]

Who says they aren't? 

[Blue-Vision]

That's what cracks me up the most. NASA puts out a call, like there's some artificially created need for habitats yesterday, when Bigelow has had them ready for in-situ testing for five years.

 

Someone's playing dirty, and they're purposely trying to exclude NewSpace ventures from the mix.

 

I say let the "Good Old Boys" run their little scam. NewSpace will be happy to build a Commercial Space Station -- and if it means getting partners like ESA, Roscosmos, and other International Space Agencies on board to make it happen, then NewSpace can say "well, you guys caused this scenario -- deal with it".

 

Seriously, I'm sick of this [expletive]. OldSpace needs to [expletive] off and die already. They're too corrupt and underhanded to be allowed to exist. 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

This will make you happy.....

 

[Blue-Vision]

Sorry. HRT making me a little .. jumpy.  

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Needs to be said...more fun when you do it....

[Blue-Vision]

Naah, I express myself and then I'm fine. Learning to "Ride the Dragon" again.  No worries.

[DocM]

NASA Admin. Gen. Bolden has already said a commercial station will be the ISS follow-up, and mentioned Bigelow in the same sentence.  They've also said as much before Congress and the FAA space group.  

 

Fact is, NASA and Bigelow have been working numerous SAA's and other projects since 1998 - even testing the habitat walls against shots from NASA's hypervelocity gun. Result: it stops MMOD simulators within the first few centimeters, and its a good radiation shield.

 

Basically, they want to turn most LEO ops commercial, even weather satellites given the growth of commercial orbital imaging.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 9, 2016 by DocM

[Blue-Vision]

7 minutes ago, DocM said:

NASA Admin. Gen. Bolden has already said a commercial station will be the ISS follow-up, and mentioned Bigelow in the same sentence.  They've also said as much before Congress and the FAA space group.  

 

Fact is, NASA and Bigelow have been working numerous SAA's and other projects since 1998 - even testing the habitat walls against shots from NASA's hypervelocity gun. Result: it stops MMOD simulators within the first few centimeters, 

 

Basically, they want to turn most LEO ops commercial, even weather satellites given the growth of commercial orbital imaging.

 

 

 

 

 

And with Commercial Space Ventures being what they are, it makes complete sense. Access to Space has never been better, or cheaper; and commercial satellite quality has never been better or more reliable either. It's a great time for Government Space Programs to be focusing on "further out".  

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Statement by Robert Bigelow Regarding Bigelow Aerospace Staff Reductions

 

Quote

Press Release From: Bigelow Aerospace 
Posted: Wednesday, January 6, 2016

 

"Recent layoffs were in response to a decision to start the New Year with more of a responsible business philosophy. For sixteen years, Bigelow Aerospace has functioned nearly exclusively as a research and development company. Starting in 2016, our intent is to behave in more of a financially responsible manner seeking to generate revenues as well as maintaining financial practicality on operating expenses as all normal companies do in a business environment. In December of 2015, we analyzed the amount of staff that we employed throughout all of our departments at Bigelow Aerospace, and discovered that numerous departments were overstaffed. Regrettably, we had to make the choice that, beginning with the New Year, we need to follow standard business protocols, which sensibly requires an attempt to achieve balance in how much staff is necessary. These layoffs will not compromise in any way our ability to execute the work and activities that we presently have ongoing."

- Robert Bigelow

// end //

http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=47639

 

[Blue-Vision]

Ohhh yeah. And what I also thought was neat was Bigelow has a naming convention in place for these habs. "Olympus" "Everest" "Fuji" and so on. The tallest mountains of lore and reality from all over. Makes sense, really.  

 

And check out *where* she's in orbit at.  Now we're talking ... 

[Beittil]

Looks like Blair talked gramps into social media!

 

https://twitter.com/RobertTBigelow

[Draggendrop Veteran]

^  Nice find......and the image is too...

 

 

For some reason, I had not known anything of his background, till this post....

Here we have another one who has had to make a fortune in another arena to enable financing of his dream.  We have an accommodations professional designing "space housing", and it shows. Kudo's to him.

 

wiki's

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

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

http://www.budgetsuites.com/

 

[DocM]

Some of the @BigelowSpace Q&A's

 

Q: how are Genesis I & II doing? 
A: we expected 6 months of data, got 2.5 years
Note: they're still up at 490 km, orbiting away.

 

Q: what is the orbital inclination of the Bigelow Space Complex?  
A: around 28°

 

Q: does it refuel or reboost? 
A: reboost from visiting vehicles

 

Q: is it compatible with Progress? 
A: yes

 

Q: what allowances would these habs have for radiation protection beyond LEO? 
A: no allowances necessary, they are far superior to metal enclosures.

 

Q: how do you deal with outer shell dusting and thus darkening and higher sun rays absorption? 
A: Beta Cloth (Teflon coated fine woven silica fibers) will cover all habitation areas. The spacecraft can accommodate EVAs to facilitate maintenance

 

Q: is this suitable for ESA's "Moon Village"? 
A: yes

 

Q: are research institutions or tourism companies showing interest? 
A: yes, although, until space transportation is a reality, none of us are going anywhere

 

Q: will it have something like CanadArm? 
A: the CanadaArm has applications under certain scenarios. However, AR&D (automated rendezvous & docking) is highly desirable

 

Q: are mods necessary for Mars Cycler or lunar base? 
A: both functions are definitely possible, however, they need to be preceded by thorough use in LEO & cislunar space first.

Edited January 11, 2016 by DocM

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Nice scoop Doc..loads of info there...Bigelow is raring to go......

Hopefully SpaceX can help shortly    

[Beittil]

Whoah it looks like I won the #BigelowHabitatChallange , got a PM from Blair on Twitter via the official BA account delivering the news and asking me for my address

 

Totally awesome

[DocM]

Cool!!

[Beittil]

Well look at what arrived today

[Draggendrop Veteran]

^ Excellent and well done....

[DocM]

Yup  

 

 

 

[Beittil]

Totally unrelated to space flight of course, but I must say this is actually a pretty nice jacket Really good quality to! The Bigelow logo is embroidered onto the jacket, this isn't some cheap ass sticker glued onto it, same goes for the BEAM mission patch which is a proper patch neatly stiched onto the jacket as well. Got to wear it to/from work for a couple of days now (in very windy and very rainy conditions) and I must say it holds up against the elements very well, really happy with it! \o/

[Draggendrop Veteran]

BEAM meeting its ride to the ISS on CRS-8

 

 

http://imgur.com/cVngGLZ

 

https://www.facebook.com/bigelowaerospace/

[DocM]

BEAMs collapsed size is 1.74m long by 2.36m wide. This expands to 3.66m by 3.2m after installation.

 

Bigelows factory in Las Vegas

 

Edited February 3, 2016 by DocM

[Beittil]

Curious tweet from Blair today...