Slashdot Mirror
Bigelow Launching New Company To Sell Private Space Stations (popularmechanics.com)
hyperclocker shares a report from Popular Mechanics: The future of spacecraft in lower Earth orbit (LEO) looks to be an increasingly commercial affair. Bigelow Aerospace, a Las Vegas-based company that builds livable space habitats, has now created a spinoff company known as Bigelow Space Operations (BSO). BSO will market and operate any space habitats that Bigelow sells. The creation of BSO signals that Bigelow is preparing for a future of commercial space living. Recently leaked NASA documents show that the Trump Administration wants to convert the International Space Station into a commercial venture, and BSO is betting that businesses including private scientific ventures and hotels will be interested in creating a profit above the Earth. A prototype Bigelow habitat, the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), has been connected to the ISS since 2016. It's proven such a successful addition that last year NASA extended its contract for an additional three years. But Bigelow is thinking past the BEAM. In its press release announcing BSO, it highlights its planned launches of the B330-1 and B330-2, spacecraft with 6-person capacity, in 2021.
Most crowd funding projects have better sites, CAD than this. Luckily with 3 years left it's more rocket science than aeronautics like the F35 stuff
BSO is betting that businesses including private scientific ventures and hotels will be interested in creating a profit above the Earth
I'm curious about what kind of profit they think they might generate. At this point the only potentially profitable venture seems to be space-tourism marketed to the ultra-rich. While NASA has done some interesting experiments in orbit, it seems unlikely that the returns from orbital experiments would ever produce results which could result in profit for private enterprise.
I am however looking forward to space tourism, if for no other reason than sheer curiosity about how long flat-earth beliefs will persist after private individuals are able to go into orbit.
Finally my dream of getting off this rock stuck in a gravity well is here! See ya!
Space Gigolo.
Coming to a private station near you!
Ahm, as if the other participating agencies: Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA will blindly agree to that...
Or might the Trump administration be brooding on some Trans-Spacial Partnership with JAXA, ESA and CSA,
sidelining the Russkies?
There are manufacturing processes that do not work so well when gravity is a factor, for such things as Foam Metals. It's also possible that such habitats would be useful for orbiting platforms for workers that deal with the machines that would do space-based resource extraction, though admittedly that may be quite some time in the making.
I doubt that anyone actually involved thinks this will be inexpensive. To the contrary, this stuff will probably be very expensive, but research and development usually is expensive.
I'm curious if Falcon Heavy and a suitable capsule ever get man-rated, if a new space station could be constructed further out and cost-effectively crewed and resupplied. Something out as far as geostationary first, then possibly an Earth-Moon Lagrange point like L4 or L5 where simple stationkeeping wouldn't require much if any fuel. It's not going to be easy or cheap, but if launching the rockets needed to put payloads that far out becomes much less expensive than it historically has cost then it might not be entirely unfeasible.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
No clutter. We'll finally be able to afford removing the existing clutter, and there's fairly strict (and increasingly stricter) regulations for creating new one.
Ezekiel 23:20
Given the success reported by Elon Musk in launching his Tesla car in the space, for sure they are planning to transform the space into a giant parking lot.
Damn, I thought my favorite tea company was jumping on a bandwagon like Long Island and blockchain
As I understand it, the plan is not to man-rate the Falcon Heavy, but rather the Falcon 9 and the BFR. Musk is hoping the BFR is a real breakthrough, even with the Falcon 9 and Heavy operating. I'm not betting against him.
I don't see why a further-out space station would be a good idea. It would cost significantly more in fuel, the station would be exposed to significantly more radiation, and the only advantage you've proposed is that it would be easier to keep station.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Space stations in close orbit require regular attention to keep them from falling from orbit. A space station further out would not suffer this and would also be further from current patterns of orbital debris. Additionally a lagrange-point orbit would be a nice laboratory in preparation for deeper solar system missions where the personnel might even be able to be rescued if there's a problem, kind of how a lunar base might help us learn about missions to other planetary bodies where the outpost is close enough to rescue personnel if there's a problem.
Plus we've got this orbital altitude worked out. Let's push ourselves again.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.