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.

Comments

Sky high prices

[ericspinder]

...[needing a valve for life support]Bigelow went shopping. American aerospace giants were willing to sell him the valve at costs that ranged from $300,000 to $1 million. Bigelow found and purchased the same valve from a European company. The cost for the identical valve? A mere $5,000.

Sounds like the legendary $500 hammer, you know the one where they put all the design and fixed costs into the price of the first run of products. It generally get really expensive if you are only doing one. For example if they only built one Ford Focus it would be a Billion dollar car. Most likely the german company has invested in a computerized milling machine, which greatly reduces costs for single items.

Re:This will be great

[mrright]

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.

Re:Radiation ?

[mrright]

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.

Re:Burt Rutan does not matter.

[julesh]

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.

Re:Why?

[isorox]

Sex.

The VCR took off because of porn
The internet took off because of porn
Space tourism will take of because of Sex.

This is Waaayyy before it's time.

[phayes]

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.

this is cool and all

[jford235]

but is there wifi and will my powerbook work up there?

Re:He seems serious

[TubeSteak]

The big aerospace companies haven't been taking these people seriously exactly for the fact that they're "only" spending $500 Mil. Would you take anyone seriously if they told you they could build a car for 1% of what everyone else is selling it for? ($5 Billion vs $500 Million) Oops, that's just the initial investment, add in the .2% each one will cost and you're saying you'll build a car company and sell $200 dollar cars. And you'll do it in 6 years.

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.

Re:OT: zillion-dollar-hammer

[Dun Malg]

Just like the $300 coffee pot was for a C-130 full of troops

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.

Re:Yes you are missing something.

[barawn]

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.