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More on Inflatable Space Hotels
StJefferson writes "It's anything but a traditional Budget Suites room, with a price tag projected to be somewhere in the range of US$50,000-100,000 per night. But Bob Bigelow's inflatable space habs will get their first trial next November, and are expected to go into production in 2008. There's even speculation that Bigelow is in talks with Burt Rutan regarding the small problem of getting customers to the door of his high-flying outposts. And the best part? Bigelow's doing this all on his own, as a private entrepreneurial venture. He's only answerable to his wife regarding the wisdom of this investment, and 'so far, she's on board.' Remind you Heinlein fans of anyone?" We've mentioned this guy before.
If they would make that and NASA used it, they would be plenty rich with all the fame to go with it.
Without that, their inventions are like thought experiments... they'd be better off conducting the Schrodinger's Cat experiment with two ants.
The only thing more dangerous than a file named -rf is renaming it -rf\ /
It's good to finally see some of the benefits of the capitalist system making their way into attempts at space travel. I imagine Bigelow (and the people running SpaceShipOne, and any other Entrepreneurs In Space) will achieve better and faster results, too, since his (their) own money is on the line...which is kind of the point of letting the money run things instead of doing it because the government wants to put a flag on the moon just to stick it to those commie Russians.
The grass is only greener, if you don't take care of your own lawn.
I think accidents will not be a big deal. People risk their lives for all kinds of crazy shit like climbing the mount everest, so why should they not be allowed to risk their lives to live in space?
Early aviation history is full of deadly accidents. And people have still continued to build and fly airplanes.
If some nanny state government like the peoples republic of california will outlaw private space flight, the development will simply move somewhere else. Even if private spaceflight is outlawed in the whole US, there are other countries in the world.
Private property is the central institution of a free society (David Friedman)
Yes, just like the first boat out of Europe in the 15th century that sunk or the first European scalped by an Indian froze in terror the heart of Europeans everywhere and made them stay home.
When did people become such cowards? Our ancestors would be ashamed that a few deaths shutdown exploration everywhere. God how I hate the 21st century.
The first space habitats will be in low earth orbit where the earth magnetosphere provides some protection from charged particle radiation from the sun and deep space.
And the bigelow designs will use water-filled bladders on the inside of the wall to provide additional radiation protection. If you want to go outside low earth orbit, just add more water.
For solar storms there will be a radiation shelter with very thick water walls.
Private property is the central institution of a free society (David Friedman)
Well, if the inflatable hotels were shaded by inflatable water tanks, it might just work. Or perhaps some kind of artifical magnetic field too.
Yeah, whatever. And transporting materials for heavy industry into a high orbit is going to cut costs.
You're idea sounds a hell of a lot better and cheaper than decent acoustic insulation.
Pardon the sarcasm above, but I'm just not buying it. Your idea seems too far-fetched even for sci-fi.
So why is Burt Rutan suddenly the go-to guy for all things space-related
It's kind of like the Wrights and Curtis becoming "go to" guys for travel, even though they could move maybe two people 50 miles and everyone knew that Cunard Lines and Leland Stanford's railroads could actually accomplish real transportation.
An alliance between pioneers in a field only makes sense; who's to say Rutan won't have an orbital vehicle in 10 years? Be kind of useless without a destination.
So why is Burt Rutan suddenly the go-to guy for all things space-related
Because, while what he has achieved might not be everything, nobody else has achieved more without government backing.
Sex.
The VCR took off because of porn
The internet took off because of porn
Space tourism will take of because of Sex.
Private sector access to space is nowhere NEAR ready! A "Space Hotel" needs to be placed in ORBIT, not just the 100km flea jump the X prize needs. Rutan's SS1 will almost certainly win the X prize in the near future, but it was designed SPECIFICALLY to win the X prize & is a dead end for access to orbit. Other entrants in the X prize such as Xcor & Armadillo may be beaten to the punch by SS1, but they have a much better chance of being adaptable to an orbital rocket.
SS1 reaches Mach 3 at maximum speed. Even if you could swap the rocket motor in SS1 with one which can reach orbit, neither SS1 nor it's mothership are big enough to carry it. In order to attain orbit Mach 25+ is needed and the difficulties (notably thermal protection issues) mount at the cube of the mach. Reentry heating is almost a non issue for SS1, but as the last shuttle flight showed is A MAJOR PROBLEM when returning from orbit.
I wish it was different but we'll need at least another decade & probably more before private access to space become a reality beyond the souped up sounding rockets that the X prize contestants represent.
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
but is there wifi and will my powerbook work up there?
You can visit a screen door factory.
A guy is in space for 6 months... his testicles are still working, right? They have to have some solution, or they'd just have a bunch of nocturnal emissions on their space blankets.
Yes this is a silly question, but I'm not trying to make a joke, I am genuinely curious.
The only thing more dangerous than a file named -rf is renaming it -rf\ /
I wouldn't believe you. Individuals have always been able to do amazing things on relatively shoe-string budgets, when they don't have to get caught up in the big business shuffle.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Yeah, whatever. And transporting materials for heavy industry into a high orbit is going to cut costs.
It would severely cut costs if the materials come from a higher orbit, IIRC, the moon has quite a lot of construction materials such as Iron. You could mine the materials from there, and mass drive them to your factories. "Rare" materials could potentially be mined in large quantities from passing asteroids. Given the DeltaV necessary to move the material into the proper orbit, these materials probably won't drop prices by much, but they will provide an abundant supply.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
The car market is a mass-production, mature industry. The space industry is not.
Think about how much a hand built car used to cost (include inflation), before Ford came along and made the process more efficient. That's along the lines of what this guy is trying to do. Just the fact that he managed to get a valve for $3k instead of $300k indicates that costs can be cut.
I don't read AC A human right
Couldnt they have, like, used flasks ?
Actually, it was part of a $20,000 hot coffee/tea/soup dispensing system built into the planes used by the Rapid Deployment Force. When you need to send the RDF somewhere, there really isn't time for people to go find a thermos make a pot of coffee. Besides, when they wake you up in the middle of the night and say "get your gear and form up"*, you have no way of knowing if it's just a drill or if it's the real thing. Do you carry around thermos of hot coffee all day and sleep with one under your pillow all niught, just in case?
* happened to me in December 1989. Woke us up at 2am and said "get your shit ready". Four hours later we were flying to Panama.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
I'm not a mod today, but I am disappointed in you. Burt's craft (arguably Paul's craft) solves many, many problems. Its a first step (see tier) in developing a cheap way to space. I challenge you to get to 100km on $20 million (2004 dollars). I wonder how much other teams have spent & what there chances are of reaching space at all, much less doing it twice, with a 600lb payload, in 2 weeks. Nevermind doing it *first*.
X-15 flew 199 times, Spaceship One flew once. You have to divide the cost by the flight count.
Three times already, actually. And what kind of bizarre logic is that? As that article pointed out, just the research for the engine alone cost more than three times SS1's current complete development cost. If the X-15 had flown once, it wouldn't have cost just $1 million.
And even admitting that logic, you'd still have to back down after the next three flights, at which point the two vehicles would be at the same cost per flight in real dollars, and adjusting for 40 years of inflation is a lot of adjustment.
That was the magazine article's author's figure, not Bigelow's. Remember that these "hotels" only make sense if they're in orbit, and that probably means a lot higher than 62 miles if they want to be somewhere stable for long enough to make back their investment. Mir hung out around 195 miles; ISS is at 400km. So 200-mile-high club is probably about right.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks