Bigelow Aerospace updates (BA-330 launch video)

[DocM]

Updates will be here now.

Life support seems to be progressing....

Space News....

Bigelow Tests Life Support System

WASHINGTON ? Bigelow Aerospace completed an initial closed-loop test in March of a prototype environmental control and life support (ECLS) system designed to support extended crew stays inside the inflatable habitats the company is building to provide research facilities and hotel accommodations in space.

The March 31 demonstration was conducted inside the company?s North Las Vegas headquarters in a newly constructed test chamber, according to Eric Haakonstad, Bigelow Aerospace chief engineer. He said the test involved locking three Bigelow engineers inside the 180-cubic-meter structure for about eight hours, during which they performed a variety of tasks that demonstrated the ECLS system?s ability to control temperature, humidity, pressure, oxygen content and the removal of carbon dioxide and trace-gas contaminants from the environment.

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Haakonstad said the initial checkout of the test facility is the first of many demos planned over the next year to simulate and test ECLS systems in support of long-duration crew stays in orbit. He said within the next couple of months Bigelow Aerospace plans to conduct a 30-hour demonstration of the ECLS system followed by another lasting up to a week.

He said both the ECLS system and its test chamber were built in-house, giving the company more control over system development.

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Haakonstad said Bigelow?s ECLS design incorporates lessons learned from systems used aboard platforms including the international space station, the Mir space station, the space shuttle and, to a lesser extent, the Orion crew capsule currently under development by NASA.

?We?re not reinventing the wheel here,? Haakonstad said. ?All we?re trying to do is take the technology development that our tax dollars through NASA have developed and package them into a more producible form factor. We?re not trying to be cutting edge in terms of technology; we are trying to be cutting edge in terms of affordability and availability and ruggedness.?

However, unlike ECLS systems designed for short-term trips between Earth and the space station, Bigelow?s ECLS system is designed to support long-duration missions on orbit.

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[DocM]

A Bigelow Aerospace primer - 2 Nevada news stories from a few months back that have a lot of info about their business plan etc.

About 10:55 long.

[neoadorable]

10.55 meters...that doesn't sound like much i have to say!

[DocM]

10:55 minutes long. Sheesh :p ;)

[neoadorable]

that's what happens when you drink and post, PUI for the win...

[DeadEndAccount]

To be totally honest I'd be more excited if they turned the idea of the inflatable station into a moon base or something awesome like that; if you made a facility huge enough on the moon it should be self sustainable. Are there any plans of using the idea on a moon base?

[DocM]

Absolutely!! Bigelow has a whole set of patents for a landable base complex to be assembled at EML-1, a gravitational equilibrium point between Earth & Moon that's a perfect place for space docks, fuel depots etc. More Bigeliw info & pics in this thread -

https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/979120-bigelow-aerospace-long-term/

[DocM]

SatNews....

Robert Bigelow, Founder and President of Bigelow Aerospace, will be the Honored Keynote Speaker at the ISDC Governors' Dinner and Gala to be held in the Davidson Center at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama on May 20.

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Mr. Bigelow will also receive the National Space Society?s Space Pioneer Award for Space Development for his efforts to advance the technology of space habitats....

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[neoadorable]

he deserves these honors, i'd name a few characters/ships after him were i a notable sci fi writer/hollywood bigwig...

and yes, Doc has been telling us about their moon base plans for a while now. i really hope they become reality by the end of this decade.

[DocM]

All at Google Patents - search for "Robert T Bigelow." these are the applications.

When looking at the base remember that while the hab walls are expandable & flexible at first, they are rigid after deployment. The habs also have metal cores and bulkheads at either end, making the whole structure very strong. Docking them to the solid metal hub/propulsion buses, which use the same attachment used at ISS, makes for a very solid structure.

Basic satellite bus (habitat)....

Impact shield....

Landable base....

Emergency safe haven....

Biomass disposal....

[neoadorable]

what would be the cost of a moon base that can support let's say 50 people year-round? are there any such estimates based on Bigelow designs?

[DocM]

Bigelow has estimated each BA-330 module would cost ~$100M. As to the cost of the propulsion bus/hubs - that's pure guesswork, but guess high at the same as a module and you have a (probably high) cost of ~$1B for the base plus launch costs of $125M per Falcon Heavy which could well do two-fer launches.

Now consider that NASA spent ~$40B on the Constellation program over the last 6 years and have nothing to show but a cancelled program and an Orion spacecraft that may never fly, especially if Dragon works as advertised.

[neoadorable]

jesus, we could have had an entire city up there now for 40 billion...what were they thinking? or is this the true, ugly face of corruption? thanks for the figures, that's quite economical, really. i have no idea why we're not doing it then. you want to tell me we could go to Mars and establish an outpost there for like $20 billion or so? and we're still not doing it?

[DocM]

If we had used $0.02 worth of common sense we could have been on Mars 20+ years ago. More numbers for you -

US cost of ISS: $100 billion

2x larger volume than ISS Bigelow station: less than $1 billion

Shuttle flights: $1.5 billion, each

Falcon 9 flights: $56 million

Cost of Dragon fligyr: $133 million

Falcon Heavy flights : $80 - $125 million (2x the cargo of shuttle)

and a few examples of what $600 million pays for -

Ares I-X test flight: not light hardware. It only tested the shape & failed

Launch tower for Ares 1-X

What Congress spent on Constellation after it was cancelled

TOTAL development cost of Dragon & Falcon 9

[neoadorable]

then how do you account for this kind of gross negligence?

[DocM]

They don't, other than blaming previous administrators, Congress/s, presidents etc. etc. etc. going back 40+ years.

Fact is a lot of things contributed including not being willing to try the new - especially if it meant a congressman/senator's district losing an existing contract. This is why Congress is demanding a Shuttle-derived heavy launcher instead of opening it up to competition - ATK (the makers of the shuttle's solids), the NASA centers that would be involved and such are in the districts of very influential representatives. Some of it was just bad decision making.

[neoadorable]

but surely if we see it so can they...this clearly means the betterment of the human race is not the top priority here.

[DocM]

Many of those involved don't care about the betterment of mankind etc., they just care about keeping federal money in their districts - and it's a bipartisan problem.

[neoadorable]

this is the truth i always try to lie to myself about, thanks for reminding me of the reality of things. progress is at the mercy of idiots and short sighted con artists. i really hope this will change soon. i hope it will be realized by all that there's endless wealth to be made from space exploration, and then greed will take us forward. i know, sounds evil, but then it took just that to get humans to pretty much do anything of any material value ever since we left the African veldt all those many millennia ago...

[DocM]

ISDC = International Space Development Conference at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama (near a NASA center)

These are the slides from their presentation -

http://images.spaceref.com/news/2011/isdc.bigelow.pdf

Their new 180,000 sq/ft factory is almost finished, and they've reduced the launch mass og the huge BA-2100, now known as Olympus, to 65 metric tons from the originally quoted 100 metric tons. This puts it wjthin the margins of a Falcon Heavy with a Raptor (hydrogen) 2nd stage or NASA's proposed SLS system.

Also interesting is their concept for NASA's Plymouth Rock asteroid mission; a BA-330 as the hab, a crew return vehicle and one of their big hub/propulsion modules for a crew of 4. Nice....

[neoadorable]

these are all very interesting, i can't wait. an asteroid mission would be awesome.

[DocM]

Bigelow Aerospace space station factory update June 6, 2011

180,000 sq/ft just outside of Las Vegas for the construction of BA-Sundancer, BA-330, BA-Olympus, docking nodes, 2 sizes of propulsion buses, and the integration of life support, maneuvering, avionics and other subsystems. First launch manifested is for a BA-Sundancer in 2014 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9.

Current ->> new construction, which is a full 700' long

[neoadorable]

nice photos Doc, thanks for posting. i fully expect these huge halls of human industrial science to be teeming with space-readiness in short order. that is all.

[DocM]

Here's another number for you; this 180,000 sq ft exapasion will take their total up to 370,000 sq ft

This includes offices, R&D, factory space, testing, vehicle integration and a large mission control center, which they had to build early because of having 2 Genesis modules already in orbit as testbeds. Yup, like SpaceX they're already flying.

Mission Control

[neoadorable]

how can i help? is there any mechandise i can buy? i want to support these people, they're helping build our future.