Bigelow Aerospace updates: thread 2

[Blue-Vision]

 Somebody's been studying their Quantum Physics. Cool.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

9 hours ago, Beittil said:

Curious tweet from Blair today...

 

 

 

"extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof", and this is the problem with social media.

 

Flat Earth people

Hollow Earth people

Moon Landing hoaxers

ISS is filmed on an aircraft, people

 

If this claim is not backed up with a peer reviewed paper, I'll add this to the list.

 

Very disappointed with this tweet. She should be thinking of "adding value" to the family business.

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

 

Here is a larger image...catwalks for ground display....

Olympus display model                Bigelow Aerospace

 

Bigelow poster....

Diego Patino

 

 

CAN BILLIONAIRE ROBERT BIGELOW CREATE A LIFE FOR HUMANS IN SPACE?

 

large article, but here are a few excepts...

 

Quote

For two years, the astronauts aboard the ISS will try to determine if the BEAM, or some larger version of it, could be habitable over the long term. They will determine leak rate, measure radiation, and examine the thermal control inside the empty module. They’ll see how the module’s soft walls stand up to the bumps and bruises in space. And they’ll do their best to figure out just what an expandable structure orbiting Earth at about 5 miles per second feels like— an impossible thing to know until it is up there.

 

Quote

What’s not on display today is Bigelow’s follow-up to BEAM, the B330, a fully livable habitat that is well underway. According to Zamka, the craft is designed to fit a crew of six comfortably, has walls about 18 inches thick, layers of insulation, and protection from micrometeorites. It boasts solar and thermal radiator arrays, semiprivate berths, a zero-G toilet, four windows, two sets of control thrusters, and will be able to link up with other spacecraft for docking, towing, or tugging. Bigelow engineers are working on avionics systems for orbit, docking, maneuvering, and boosting beyond LEO into cislunar space. This past May, the company announced it was looking to fill upwards of 100 new positions to build those systems out for a (very optimistic) launch date in 2018.

 

Quote

B330 is much more complex than BEAM. It’s not a demonstration pod but a full-fledged expandable spacecraft, capable of sustaining human life on its own. Many of its life-support and comfort systems will be forerunners for a lunar base.
Zamka told me many of B330’s most daunting problems have been solved, not solely by Bigelow but with help from NASA. What might still hold up the launch, he said, would be finding a crew, and a rocket capable of carrying it. At about 43,000 pounds, B330 weighs roughly twice what the Russians or SpaceX can lift. That problem might be temporary, though. Two heavy-lift rockets are coming online shortly: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, due to launch later this year, and NASA’s SLS (for Space Launch System), which will debut within the decade.

much more at the link... ( though most is a recap)

http://www.popsci.com/can-billionaire-robert-bigelow-create-a-life-for-humans-in-space

[Blue-Vision]

 Yep. Stuff we already knew. All we were missing were details.

 

And the view inside .. very nice. Thanks DD.  

[Draggendrop Veteran]

7 minutes ago, Unobscured Vision said:

 Yep. Stuff we already knew. All we were missing were details.

 

And the view inside .. very nice. Thanks DD.  

It will be nice to see the Beam launch and the installation/expansion...can't wait....

[Emn1ty]

That's way larger than I was expecting.

[DocM]

17 minutes ago, Emn1ty said:

That's way larger than I was expecting.

Well over 2x  the habitable volume of ISS in one module.

[Blue-Vision]

9 minutes ago, DocM said:

Well over 2x  the habitable volume of ISS in one module.

And that's before they do anything creative like adding smaller specialized modules for specific needs (like Science, Environmental, Reprocessing/Recycling, etc). Lots and lots of potential uses for Bigelow's stuff and they are purpose agnostic for the most part. Only design parameters that really need to be taken into account is whether they're going to be used for Orbital, Colony-No Atmosphere, or Colony-With Atmosphere.  They'll be able to be used anywhere we go; and since they pack up into nice, tight payloads until deployed they're really the only practical way to go.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

BEAM mockup attached to ISS mockup at JSC Building 9

 

// apparently this is mainly a hatch and vestibule trainer

 

 

Imgur link

[DocM]

On 3/7/2016 at 7:06 PM, Emn1ty said:

Another uneraseable quote window. Someone fix this!!

~~ DocM

 

 

 

[Blue-Vision]

 /happydance

[DocM]

 

 

 

[Blue-Vision]

Aside from needing handholds/foot grips and fittings (and probably miscellaneous supplies), looks pretty good to me. Can't wait to see those 330's in action.

[DocM]

NASA TV coverage of BEAM  installation on ISS starts April 16 at 0530 Eastern (Saturday)

 

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

This is some real amazing stuff. Where do I go to volunteer.

[DocM]

This Space Age 2.0, aka New Space, is really something - reusable rockets, electric rocket engines for use in space, megnetodynamic shields, expandable habitats, 3D printed hardware (even printed in space), all manner of cool stuff. So much fun

 

 

[FloatingFatMan]

28 minutes ago, DocM said:

This Space Age 2.0, aka New Space, is really something - reusable rockets, electric rocket engines for use in space, megnetodynamic shields, expandable habitats, 3D printed hardware (even printed in space), all manner of cool stuff. So much fun

 

If only NASA had kept up their early momentum from the Apollo days... We'd have been on Mars 20 years ago!

[DocM]

Apollo was unsustainable due to the costs of Saturn V and it's operations, then politicians chose the worst of all possible successors with the Space Shuttle. Cool yes - but expensive to build and refurbish, limited to going in circles and unsafe from the first flight. Then, when alternatives presented themselves the Shuttle Mafia (those who profited from it) shut them down politically.  

 

HL-20 (now Dream Chaser) and HL-42 (DC's bigger brother) could have fulfilled the human and light cargo shuttle role, big dumb rockets the large cargo role and exploration can be done much better than Apollo or the current Apollo on Steroids™ (SLS/Orion).

 

 

Edited April 13, 2016 by DocM

[Blue-Vision]

Totally and completely agree with everything said thus far.  

[FloatingFatMan]

11 hours ago, DocM said:

Apollo was unsustainable due to the costs of Saturn V and it's operations, then politicians chose the worst of all possible successors with the Space Shuttle. Cool yes - but expensive to build and refurbish, limited to going in circles and unsafe from the first flight. Then, when alternatives presented themselves the Shuttle Mafia (those who profited from it) shut them down politically.  

 

HL-20 (now Dream Chaser) and HL-42 (DC's bigger brother) could have fulfilled the human and light cargo shuttle role, big dumb rockets the large cargo role and exploration can be done much better than Apollo or the current Apollo on Steroids™ (SLS/Orion).

 

 

I didn't mean the tech, I meant the whole momentum of space development. After Apollo 13, things seemed to stumble, falter, and fall on their face... Before then, everything was going at a breakneck pace.

[DocM]

Again, it was the politicians. The NASA guys had some great concepts for going forward but competing interests in Congress and elsewhere watered down and defunded them into a bastardized mess - the Space Shuttle.

[DocM]

 

 

[FloatingFatMan]

Will they be actively using the BEAM module, or just pressurizing it and checking for leaks from time to time?

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

42 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

Will they be actively using the BEAM module, or just pressurizing it and checking for leaks from time to time?

 

Once in place, the module will only be visited a few times a year for sensor data. This will be for 2 years and the module will be de-orbited.

 

ISS article on BEAM, 12 April, 2016

Article on BEAM

 

[DocM]

 

Correct, this is a qualification test to see how it holds up - taking it from TRL-9 to TRL-10 (space worthy.)

 

Once qialified it can be used for long mission habitation, as spacecraft mission modules, as space station modules, and even for use as base or colony habitats. Nothing limits the tech to a sausage shape. It could be a torus used as a long mission gravity centrifuge, a dome, whatever.

Edited April 15, 2016 by DocM