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Details On Inflatable Space Modules
Decibel writes "Although it's been mentioned on Slashdot twice now, this article contains more details about Robert T. Bigelow's plan to orbit massive inflatable space habitats, with the first test modules to be launched next year. It also details the $50 million "America's Space Prize", with the objective to "spur development of a low-cost commercial manned orbital vehicle capable of launching 5-7 astronauts at a time to Bigelow inflatable modules by the end of the decade.""
It's kind of cool to see this idea come to fruition. I'm sure that every child has gone through one of those inflatable castles and wondered what it would be like to have an inflatable house. I myself have often wondered if houses on other planets could be constructed in a manner similar to the late Xanadu. Just inflate the basic structure with just high enough PSI to make it rigid, then spray foam all over it. Allow the structure to cure, and you've got yourself air-tight, super-strong walls that can be repaired from pretty much any damage just by spraying more foam!
Something to think about, anyway.
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I'd love to see the "Trojan Condom" logo on that thing. Talk about great product placement.
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Inflatable space modules are all well and good--until The Terrorists(tm) develop a gigantic space pin!
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Line the floor with multicolored plastic balls, and we have a perfect place to keep our space toddlers.
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An austronaut gets to yell "Hey NASA, BLOW ME!" and not get nasty looks...
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Can anybody explain what, if any, physical concerns exist with the use of an inflatable bladder in space? I can't quite envision how an inflatable object would behave in zero-G (perhaps just like any other object?), but in a vacuum, presumably explosion would be quite a difficult problem. Obviously, they've thought this through, but if somebody could explain the challenge of the proposition, I'd love to hear it.
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I hope all the floating space junk/garbage out there in orbit doesn't puncture the module. Maybe they could develop a way to have the side instantly fill the hole with a hardening substance and stop the leak quickly. I think there are automobile tires that do that now...?
I'm sure it's being addressed but the first thing I think of is the effects of micrometeoroid impacts on whatever skin they're using. Then I wonder about the effects of extreme temperature gradients on the skin. I'm sure rapid decompression of the "air bladder" should the skin be pierced has been considered as well.
Pardon me if I seem a bit old-fashioned but I'll wait for the answers/results of these questions before I would invest any more time or money into this.
If it can be done, super! It sounds like it could be an interesting marvel.. if they can pull it off.
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All it will take is "Someone Like Larry." They will have to put up signs everywhere: "No playing darts in inflatable space habitat" "Soccer cleats will be confiscated" "DO NOT RUN WITH SCISSORS"
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With all the needle jokes and condom comparisons one could get the impression that these inflatable modules are less rugged than the aluminium modules now used for the ISS.
This is not the case. They are made out of multiple layers of kevlar (the same stuff that bulletproof vests are made of). In tests with the NASA-designed transhab inflatable module they have proven to be much more resistant to space debris than aluminium hulls.
Also even if a particulary large piece of space debris should punch a hole in one of these modules, they are so big that there would be plenty of time to evacuate them before the pressure drops too much. A long-time station will probably also have a repair kit on board.
Third, the problem of space debris is particulary severe in low earth orbit. But in a higher earth orbit there is much less space debris, and the stuff that is there moves with much lower relative velocities. So from a space debris point of view low earth orbit is the absolute worst case. A station at an Earth/Moon lagrange point or in deep space would need little or no space debris protection.
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...this new frontier of commercial space flights and doing stuff in near space will just lead to one industry taking a lead and pushing the cutting edge while others sit by watching.
Let's face it, within 5 years there could be space hookers. All the really rich lonely people will push this endeavor.
Which just begs the question, who will be the premier space pimp? Who will be the Lando Calrission in the next 5 years?
I just can't picture one of these space balloons without thinking about one end coming loose, and the whole thing blasting crazily about in space while making a ridiculously load farting noise.
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All inhabited spacecraft are inflated structures and all are prone to punctures. In space, you can't easily prevent the puncture (even aluminum capsules have some risk), but what happens next determines the survival of the crew. If the puncture just leaves a pinhole, then all that's needed is a patch. If the hole leads to a larger tear, then death soon ensues. This problem is not unique to space as a jet airliner is just a big balloon that will pop if poorly designed or maintained.
Materials such as rip-stop nylon use strong threads at crossing angles to prevent propagation of a hole or tear. The same principle could be used in inflatable spacecraft to limit the scope of an puncture damage. The interlacing threads would limit the damage to one or a few cells of the structural material.
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This must be an enormous disappointment to MegaMaid, I'm sure she would have had something else in mind.
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It's not plastic.
It's Kevlar fiber, generally, along with a variety of other materials, all of which have been tested in space or are currently on the space station. Just because a cheap injection-molded plastic toy breaks easily doesn't mean that all non-metallic materials are easily broken.
They've already worked the water supply angle out there. It depends on the project. The Transhab had the water supply going down the center, so you could stay in the shadow of it during radiation events.
Leakproofing is one of the problems they solve to make it all work. Just because a cheap rubber balloon can't hold pressure for years on end doesn't mean that all non-metallic materials have leaks.
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...the exact opposite of an inflatable space station, is a skin tight space-suit! If we could develop that technology, space walks could become as easy as diving! (If not a smidge easier.)
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This could also be used for interplanetary craft.
Imagine launching to Mars. Even if you launch in a tuna can ala Zubrin, it's still pretty confined. If you launch in an un -nflated balloon, accelerate and get pointed at Mars, you can inflate and have twice or three times the living space. As long are you're willing to be confined for a few hours at first, the place could be quite roomy and more people could be sent per trip as long as provisions are increased.
Just a thought.
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A lot has been said about the fears of preventing the inflatable capsules from being punctured, but the article states that they don't even have the solution to sealing them properly yet. The Bigelow team is also developing how to fold and package those soft goods around the module's aluminum core, so once inflated in space, creases and folds and critical seals around windows and hatches do not leak. Plus, and I'm not physicist, but isn't it cold in space? And doesn't gas pressure drop when it gets cold? Are these things to be inflated with liquid nitrogen and oxygen? This site http://www.faqs.org/faqs/astronomy/faq/part4/secti on-14.html leads me to believe that if you were on the sunny side of Earth things would be ok, but go into a shadow and whoops, there goes the inflation.
At the velocity anything is moving foam rubber or carbon fibre would be the same thing. After what a paint chip did to sone of the shuttle windows (what, 8" of layered safety glass?) I'd be more worried about larger bits and how to disperse their kinetic energy rather than try to put something rigid in the path (keep in mind, if it's facing away from the Sun it could have a very low surface temperature, thus more brittle.)
Maybe like one beachball inside another beachball with a layer of sand between...
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Incidentally, those wacky Russians did a test of this thing's ability to survive reentry and it seemed to to pretty ok. Check it out.
These inflatable modules are cool and everything, but I'm much more interested in the America Space Prize than the modules.
I was hoping that one of the criteria for the contest was that the entire spacecraft, not just the crew module, would be reusable. As far as I can tell, the winning entry will be launched on a traditional throwaway booster. Given this, it will cost you half a mil to fly to a Bigelow Inflatable Hotel for a week of fun in space, hardly an affordable price.
It seems, therefore, the America Space Prize is not about tourism but competing directly with NASA for space science money. Not necessarily bad, but not as exciting as seeing the frontier of affordable LEO space tourism open up.
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IMHO the only viable way to build a habitat where people are supposed to live for an extended period of time (i.e. years) is underground.
Might work as a cheap way to build big LEO (below the Van Allen belt) space stations though ...
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Check out this fascinating detailed design for a completely reusable Saturn-V size rocket, powered by a Gas Core Nuclear Reactor engine. The engine emits non-radioactive hydrogen propellant. The rocket described would be able to lift 1000 tons of cargo into orbit and return to a powered landing, for only 5% of today's cost per pound.
I know "nuclear" is still a dirty word, but the gas core reactor design is a completely different approach than a big pile of plutonium. Very promising in terms of power, safety and cost.
It's a long article, 14 parts, but well worth reading. Skip the first 5 or 6 sections if you just want to know how the thing works.
So I was thinking, once we get the massive inflatable technology under our belt, we could probably manage to make these really really really big balons that self-fill with energy-disapating foam once in orbit. (Think styrofoam, you know basically rigid once set-up.)
These things could be set on orbits "just slightly different" than those that were "known " to contain the the smaller space debris.
Since the mass of the balons would be relatively low, we would know when impacts took place.
So by deliberately intersecting the orbits of this stuff we would accumulate it in the rigid foam. The outer structure would be pierced, but by then it would only be strapping on the foam mass to keep *it* from disintegrating.
Over time, in a low orbit, the orbit would decay and the big foam ball would have a nice energetic reentry, bolts, wrenches, gasgets, and all.
In high orbits, the thing could be retrieved.
If the thing were in a retrograde (backwards from all the normal orbits) it wouldn't necessarily even have to capture the debris. A little momentum would be exchanged and both objects would fall to lower orbits.
And it would look good from the "big rubber hilton across the way" 8-)
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I just hope the original designer of the Space Hopper is alive to see this.
.." etc.
I can just picture him now as some crazy old guy who keeps shouting "I told you so! I told you so! See? Nobody believed Old Crazy Jim when he said