Inflatable Habitat Inspection Needs Doug Litteken NASA/JSC/ES2
[email protected] In-Space Inspection Workshop Session 3a-4, January 31, 2017 1/31/2017 D. Litteken, NASA/JSC/ES2 1 Overview • Inflatable Structure Brief History • Inflatable Module Shell Layers – Shell Layer Inspection Needs • Flight Testing Inspection Needs • Ground Testing Inspection Needs • Inspection Hardware Needs 1/31/2017 D. Litteken, NASA/JSC/ES2 2 Inflatable Structures Brief History • Inflatable habitats are fabric based pressure vessels, composed of multiple layers of materials • Fabric layers can be packed tightly for launch and expanded in orbit, providing significant volume savings • TransHab (1990’s) – Originally designed for Mars transit – 25-ft diameter x 3 stories high – Morphed into ISS Design • Bigelow Aerospace (1999+) NASA TransHAB Module – Launched two sub-scale modules (Genesis I, 2006) and (Genesis II, 2007) – BEAM launched on SpaceX-8 berthed to ISS in April and inflated in May 2016, currently planned for 2-year mission – 10.5-ft diameter x 13-ft long – Technology demonstrator on ISS that potential for equipment testing in space • NextSTEP (2014+) – Commercial habitat concepts for cis-lunar and Mars architectures – Multiple companies looking at utilizing inflatables as habitats and airlocks Bigelow Genesis Module 1/31/2017 D. Litteken, NASA/JSC/ES2 3 Inflatable Module Shell Layers • Habitat is composed of high strength materials, stacked in a layered configuration for structure, pressure, micro-meteoroid and thermal considerations Redundant Thermal Layer Bladders AO Cover Interior Exterior Inner Liner Deployment System MMOD Restraint Layer Shielding TransHAB Layer Configuration 1/31/2017 D. Litteken, NASA/JSC/ES2 4 Shell Layers Inspection Needs Inner Liner Material Needs Flame Resistant, puncture resistant.