Bigelow Aerospace to Send an Inflatable Room to ISS Tonight

The inflatable room will be launched by SpaceX who after the payload has been sent will again try to land their Falcon 9 rocket on a floating platform , the Inflatable Room will be attached to the ISS for 2 years and will be an experiment for a livable habitat for a future Mars mission.

Meanwhile, the launch is a huge moment for Bigelow Aerospace, the project of real estate billionaire Robert Bigelow. The company has launched prototype expandable habitats before, but none have been occupied by humans.

This 1,400kg contraption, once attached and inflated in about a month's time, will be visited periodically by ISS personnel. Made of many layers of fabric and covered with a flexible Kevlar-like material, the Beam will be tested to see how well it stands up to fluctuating temperatures and high levels of radiation.
www.bbc.co.uk...

I wish them luck , maybe a manned Mars mission in my lifetime is a possibility.

a reply to: gortex
Thanks for posting this!
It seems like pretty good idea. I hope it pans out. It could make space habitats a lot easier to transport on future manned missions.

a reply to: butcherguy

One very close heat source and "pop" goes the weasel...err...inflatable.

a reply to: NewzNose

Inflatable here is nore analogous to a foldable tent than a rubber balloon.

Except that the tent has walls which are much more thick, and it's pressure which gives it form instead of poles.

Sounds like a bouncy castle is heading to space,could you imagine.

a reply to: gortex

The advantages are many, lighter construction, smaller package at lift off and in space of course just like a car tyre on earth the pressure will make these thing's extremely rigid, rock hard even, modern cellular design mean's they will likely be able to cope with punctures by micro meteors etc very well indeed and a simple patching system or even self sealing method will protect the internal atmosphere, move over hard metallic shielding and bring out the small electromagnetic shielding technology to deflect radiation and you have a marriage of perfect symmetry.

There were plan's for inflatable habitat's even as far back as the 60's including a proposed wheel space station which would simulate gravity by spinning, it was to be made from multiple inflatable and some hard sections combined to make the structure.

Perfect choice and if you think on the damage a micro meteor can do to a solid structure and how relatively small structural damage it would do by simply passing through the inflatable structure it is even more interesting, less impact energy is transmitted to the structure but of course the downside is that whatever is inside has equally less protection and that meteor could impact an object inside the structure and cause and explostion or flash fire inside it instead of knocking off a few tiles but it is still a potential technology and of course vulnerable equipment and even personell can have safe zone's while a large inflatable hydroponic's section could see this make growing there own food for prolonged period's in space even more viable.

history.nasa.gov...

Here is a video of Bigalow's planned test.

The Inflatable Room was successfuly launched and is on its way to ISS , Space X also for the first time landed their Falcon 9 on the barge for recovery..... excellent work!


If at first you don't succeed .......

originally posted by: dukeofjive696969
Sounds like a bouncy castle is heading to space,could you imagine.

I wonder what other "inflatables" will be included in that payload for the lonely guys up there?