Slashdot Mirror
Hotel Tycoon Pushes Inflatable Space Stations
heptapod writes "Reclusive millionaire and motel tycoon Robert Bigelow has announced launching inflatable space stations through his personal aerospace firm. He's working off of NASA's TransHab designs and hopes to get launch one as early as November 2005! I'm sure after someone wins the X Prize they'll need someplace to stay the night. I wonder if each inflatable station module won't come with complimentary bibles."
Actually, that's not as stupid as it sounds.....Nah, just kidding, it really is as stupid as it sounds.
Igor Presnyakov stole my hat
Well, yes, but we're talking speeds of kilometres per second out there. By comparison it makes any military sabot ammo seem slow.
Now a larger piece of debris, ok, would probably break through a rigid structure just as well. A glancing hit, on the other hand, might just graze a metal vehicle, but slice a balloon open.
To be clearer about it, my concern isn't as much about metal vs a syntetic membrane, but more along the lines of "what material and how thick will it be?"
I thought the whole reason to use these is, yes, to save weight. However, weight has nothing to do with whether it's rigid or flexible. A rigid piece of balsa wood can be lighter than a flexible piece of spring steel. All that matters is the density of the material, and how much of it do you have.
I.e., to make a bigger room out of inflatable material than the rigid ones we're currently sending up there, and still end up with less weight than those, you have to wonder how. Did they invent a flexible material that's extraordinarily lightweight and resistant and presumably cheap? Or, more likely, they're just planning to have a thin membrane?
Somehow it doesn't exactly make me believe that it'll be a thick armoured structure that can deflect a sharp edged rock.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.