Toups said the field demonstration will show that the structure can be "packaged in a small volume" but still "expand to a usable, habitable volume," even in an extreme environment. If NASA likes what it sees, a second or third generation inflatable habitat could deploy to the moon as early as 2020, with four-person crews making weeklong trips to get a lunar base operational.

NASA and the National Science Foundation hope to learn how the habitat material behaves in a cold environment and how well the structure retains heat and atmosphere.

Originally posted by PrplHrt
reply to post by AcesInTheHole

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Right, I understand the need to test it in extreme environments. We have test facilities that simulate these conditions. I've read about them in other articles over the years.

Features:
61-cm-diameter- by 76.2-cm-long cylindrical vacuum chamber.
10-6-torr base operating pressure.
Dust transported and dispersed in vacuum facility without danger to vacuum pumping.
Sufficient ports available for instrumentation, plumbing, LN2, and solar radiation source addition.