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Bigelow Aerospace has designed an serving as sub-contractors to NASA. commercial and scientific research LEO has been dominated by NASA and and development as well as inflatable , which is up a handful of other government space manufacturing… akin to a national lab’. agencies.’ Bigelow is targeting entire Two habitable Bigelow modules for rent. It offers both commercial and countries to lease his modules, and are almost ready to go. As well as the argues that those who exploit the 13.7m long BA 330, which already political potential says the company’s opportunities of microgravity ‘will exists as a production model, there is become the economic giants and , 8.8m long with a founder. Herbert Wright reports political leaders of the future‘. pressurised volume of 180 cubic Memoranda of understanding have metres. Bigelow already has In 1969, David Bowie’s Major Tom 330 cubic metre interior – a giant leap been signed by the UK, Japan and astronauts to service these modules. described his home as a ‘tin can’. in habitable space compared to other nations. Although not binding Life-support systems testing began in From our occasional glimpses into the NASA’s current Destiny research commitments, Bigelow says they ‘serve October. The roadblock to getting International Space Station’s (ISS) module at the ISS, which is only 106 as an important intermediate step’. them into service is a lack of a cramped confines, things have not cubic metres in volume. What countries or companies do transport system or capsule to get changed dramatically. There is, Bigelow is passionate about with their module is up to them. astronauts up and down from LEO. however, an alternative being commercialising manned space Bigelow built his personal fortune ‘Without such a capsule we cannot mooted. Robert T Bigelow has a activity, and he’s put his money where from the Budget Suites of America proceed,’ says Bigelow, ‘and it different proposition: a habitable his mouth is: he’s invested $18 million hotel chain, so not surprisingly the certainly represents the long pole in inflatable module. Although this since 1998 in Las Vegas-based Bigelow press has touted . ‘We the tent.’ Undeterred, his company is sounds strange, it makes sense and Aerospace. His aim is to commercialise are not building a space hotel,’ he now participating in Boeing’s NASA- allows for larger volumes of usable low Earth orbit (LEO) – the area insists, although ‘if Hilton or Marriott backed CST-100 capsule, designed to space to be packed tightly into the roughly 160-2,000km above the Earth hired us, we would be happy to design dock not just with the ISS, but also same payload at launch as a in which you’ll find various satellites, such a facility.’ Instead, Bigelow sees Bigelow’s station, which will consist conventional metal tube. Bigelow tonnes of debris and the ISS. ‘LEO more serious, wealth-creating use of of two Sundancers and a BA 330 Aerospace plans a commercial space becoming the domain of private LEO’s microgravity ‘that will benefit around a central docking unit. station by 2015, with modules to rent. enterprise’, says Bigelow, ‘[means] the entire globe’. He stresses that his Although Bigelow is one of a new The biggest, a BA 330, offers a roomy commercial companies moving beyond offering is ‘a world-class platform for set of private entrepreneurs, his work owes a debt to NASA. In 2002, Right: the proposed Bigelow licensed NASA patents for an space station from alternative to the conventional ‘tin Bigelow cans’ that house astronauts and Aeronautics will equipment in orbit. The TransHab comprise two project was based around a tube of Sundancer modules 30cm-thick laminated materials and one BA 330 capable of absorbing impacts from meteors and debris while also insulating against exterior temperature variations of 250°C. The structure had to be flexible enough to inflate to almost double its launch diameter. In 2000, the US Congress banned the US space agency from building expandable space modules, in a complex bill addressing its spiralling funding. According to Bigelow, ‘My understanding is that the furthest NASA got before the programme was terminated was to construct and test some restraint layers.’ He adds that ‘many expandable habitats look alike externally, which is why from a superficial perspective NASA plans can bear a resemblance to illustrations of our own products’. The technology, though, now sets Bigelow apart from his commercial competition. Other companies such as Orbital Technologies are planning to launch a small metal module. This month, Excalibur shipped two unused 1970s Soviet military space station modules to the Isle of Man for testing. Bigelow is unfazed, expressing confidence in his ‘superior architecture and usable volume’. A crowded marketplace in LEO is exactly where Bigelow’s unique inflated modules should blow away the competition.

BLUEPRINT MARCH 2011