Bigelow Aerospace Update and Discussion Thread (4)

[Comga]

(snip)
That last bit is exactly how I imagined this entire enterprise.  It just felt bad from day one.

No
Not from "day one".
My young colleague went to Bigelow early on and they built, flew, and operated Genesis 1 and 2, which were real first steps to building space habitats.
Then the wheels came off the bus.
Bigelow just could not manage the enterprise to success.
Only one person had defied the adage that to build a small fortune in spaceflight you should start with a large one.
Bigelow's was never going to be the second, according to people who worked for him.

How far beyond TransHub TransHab did Genesis 1 and 2 go?

(very late response)
They got to orbit.

[meekGee]

(snip)
That last bit is exactly how I imagined this entire enterprise.  It just felt bad from day one.

No
Not from "day one".
My young colleague went to Bigelow early on and they built, flew, and operated Genesis 1 and 2, which were real first steps to building space habitats.
Then the wheels came off the bus.
Bigelow just could not manage the enterprise to success.
Only one person had defied the adage that to build a small fortune in spaceflight you should start with a large one.
Bigelow's was never going to be the second, according to people who worked for him.

How far beyond TransHub TransHab did Genesis 1 and 2 go?

(very late response)
They got to orbit.

iRoll.  And I flew across the ocean a couple of years ago. 

--

Given the IP that they got with TransHub, how much more did they develop?

It takes a different type of organization to develop new technology as opposed to implementing existing one.

If you only know how to do the latter, you will quickly run out of steam.

[Semmel]

There is an interview of Joe Rogan with Robert Bigelow:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4K3Q51lzzIjUNEsEz1qqXE

I was very interested in Bigelow due to his involvement in spaceflight and space habitats. Unfortunately this topic comes barely up. I have been sitting through the entire interview and I am quite disappointed by the sheer amount of superstition that Bigelow entertains. Now this does not necessarily impacts Bigelow Aerospace.. but it does make me wonder if there is any future to them.

[edzieba]

There is an interview of Joe Rogan with Robert Bigelow:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4K3Q51lzzIjUNEsEz1qqXE

I was very interested in Bigelow due to his involvement in spaceflight and space habitats. Unfortunately this topic comes barely up. I have been sitting through the entire interview and I am quite disappointed by the sheer amount of superstition that Bigelow entertains. Now this does not necessarily impacts Bigelow Aerospace.. but it does make me wonder if there is any future to them.

Bigelow was a nut long before Bigelow Aerospace existed (and it was founded before both Blue Origin and SapceX). You have to be at least a little nuts to start a commercial space hotel company nearly a decade before COTS! Bigelow's nuttiness may well have been a large factor in why Bigelow Aerospace is currently defunct-in-all-but-name, but Bigelow's nuttiness combined with a willingness to reach into some deep pockets is also the reason Bigelow Aerospace existed in the first place and managed to fly two free-flying inflatable modules and one currently still attached to the ISS and in active use.

[yg1968]

I suspect that Bigelow will come back once the pandemic is over. His hotel business must have taken a huge hit because of the pandemic.

[yg1968]

This video (at 20 seconds of the video) confirms my suspicion that Bigelow hopes to revive Bigelow Aerospace:

[yg1968]

This article has more details about Bigelow Aerospace:
https://news3lv.com/news/local/is-there-life-after-death-nevada-aerospace-entrepreneur-offers-1-million-for-proof

“Yeah, we had to lay everybody off. We have only about 15 people working in the aerospace company working here right now,” said Bigelow. [...]

Bigelow would like to fully reopen his company in the future [...].

[Nomadd]

 Are there any real specs for the extended Falcon fairing they're working on? As in, would a FH be able to launch a BA 330 with one?

[Lars-J]

Are there any real specs for the extended Falcon fairing they're working on? As in, would a FH be able to launch a BA 330 with one?

I suspect Starship is likely to be ready before a restarted Bigelow can have a BA-330 ready for flight, so I don't think FH fairing limitations are that meaningful at this point. (Yes Starship is not a guarantee but neither is Bigelow's return)

And besides, New Glenn or Vulcan would be able to launch a BA 330 without much trouble.

[Tomness]

Are there any real specs for the extended Falcon fairing they're working on? As in, would a FH be able to launch a BA 330 with one?

I suspect Starship is likely to be ready before a restarted Bigelow can have a BA-330 ready for flight, so I don't think FH fairing limitations are that meaningful at this point. (Yes Starship is not a guarantee but neither is Bigelow's return)

And besides, New Glenn or Vulcan would be able to launch a BA 330 without much trouble.

You start talking Starship, New Glenn, Vulcan your talking more BA-1000 but putting those 1000 or 330 in reuse mode would nice too

[yg1968]

Are there any real specs for the extended Falcon fairing they're working on? As in, would a FH be able to launch a BA 330 with one?

Bigelow's plans for launching the BA-330 in late 2013 was to use a Falcon Heavy with an extended fairing (which, at that time, was supposed to be 15' taller).

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=30850.msg1192430#msg1192430

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=42664.msg1664203#msg1664203

[clongton]

Bigelow was a nut long before Bigelow Aerospace existed (and it was founded before both Blue Origin and SapceX). You have to be at least a little nuts to start a commercial space hotel company nearly a decade before COTS! Bigelow's nuttiness may well have been a large factor in why Bigelow Aerospace is currently defunct-in-all-but-name, but Bigelow's nuttiness combined with a willingness to reach into some deep pockets is also the reason Bigelow Aerospace existed in the first place and managed to fly two free-flying inflatable modules and one currently still attached to the ISS and in active use.

Why do you say he is nuts?
1. Because he believes that there is other intelligent life out there and they may have visited us?
2. Because he is interested to find out whether or not human conscienceless survives the body at death?
Lots and lots of people, very intelligent people, believe these things. The only difference is that he has enough money to fund actual efforts to realistically find genuine answers to these questions, while the vast majority can only speculate. And so he spends it and talks publicly about it. To say that "I believe [this and that] and I'm willing to spend enough money to find out if it is true or not" does not make someone nuts. It makes them unique, but only because they have the money to do that while the rest of us do not.

[Danderman]

(snip)
That last bit is exactly how I imagined this entire enterprise.  It just felt bad from day one.

No
Not from "day one".
My young colleague went to Bigelow early on and they built, flew, and operated Genesis 1 and 2, which were real first steps to building space habitats.
Then the wheels came off the bus.
Bigelow just could not manage the enterprise to success.
Only one person had defied the adage that to build a small fortune in spaceflight you should start with a large one.
Bigelow's was never going to be the second, according to people who worked for him.

How far beyond TransHub TransHab did Genesis 1 and 2 go?

(very late response)
They got to orbit.

iRoll.  And I flew across the ocean a couple of years ago. 

--

Given the IP that they got with TransHub, how much more did they develop?

It takes a different type of organization to develop new technology as opposed to implementing existing one.

If you only know how to do the latter, you will quickly run out of steam.

A search of the USPTO will show the patents obtained by Bigelow for new IP.

[yg1968]

Bigelow was a nut long before Bigelow Aerospace existed (and it was founded before both Blue Origin and SapceX). You have to be at least a little nuts to start a commercial space hotel company nearly a decade before COTS! Bigelow's nuttiness may well have been a large factor in why Bigelow Aerospace is currently defunct-in-all-but-name, but Bigelow's nuttiness combined with a willingness to reach into some deep pockets is also the reason Bigelow Aerospace existed in the first place and managed to fly two free-flying inflatable modules and one currently still attached to the ISS and in active use.

Why do you say he is nuts?
1. Because he believes that there is other intelligent life out there and they may have visited us?
2. Because he is interested to find out whether or not human conscienceless survives the body at death?
Lots and lots of people, very intelligent people, believe these things. The only difference is that he has enough money to fund actual efforts to realistically find genuine answers to these questions, while the vast majority can only speculate. And so he spends it and talks publicly about it. To say that "I believe [this and that] and I'm willing to spend enough money to find out if it is true or not" does not make someone nuts. It makes them unique, but only because they have the money to do that while the rest of us do not.

Yes, I agree. It's good to have some people that don't always follow the mold or what is popular in the media. Being excentric isn't always a bad thing and is probably part of what makes these people successful. The same thing could be said of Elon Musk.

[Nomadd]

 Yeah...Son of Sam was eccentric too.
 Bigelow doesn't believe aliens "may have visited" He thinks they're here now and believes in every fruitcake UFO "theory" in the book. In the spectrum between scientific researcher and nut, he's pretty close to one end.

[libra]

There is an interview of Joe Rogan with Robert Bigelow:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4K3Q51lzzIjUNEsEz1qqXE

I was very interested in Bigelow due to his involvement in spaceflight and space habitats. Unfortunately this topic comes barely up. I have been sitting through the entire interview and I am quite disappointed by the sheer amount of superstition that Bigelow entertains. Now this does not necessarily impacts Bigelow Aerospace.. but it does make me wonder if there is any future to them.

Did Bigelow smoked weed during the interview ?  (sorry, couldn't resist...)

[Semmel]

Yeah...Son of Sam was eccentric too.
 Bigelow doesn't believe aliens "may have visited" He thinks they're here now and believes in every fruitcake UFO "theory" in the book. In the spectrum between scientific researcher and nut, he's pretty close to one end.

For me, his stance was news. I didnt know he was into that stuff, and of course he can do what he wants, not my place to judge the dude. If there is solid evidence for something, I'm ready to leave the worn out path of commonly agreed reality behind and explore whats in the woods. But Bigelow.. he wants to believe stuff, evidence or not. Im surprised he got anything functional into space with that attitude. Must have been well separated from the team who did it.

[su27k]

I don't care whether Bigelow believes in aliens, I'm more worried about the management horror stories on Glassdoor...

[mainmind]

(snip)
That last bit is exactly how I imagined this entire enterprise.  It just felt bad from day one.

No
Not from "day one".
My young colleague went to Bigelow early on and they built, flew, and operated Genesis 1 and 2, which were real first steps to building space habitats.
Then the wheels came off the bus.
Bigelow just could not manage the enterprise to success.
Only one person had defied the adage that to build a small fortune in spaceflight you should start with a large one.
Bigelow's was never going to be the second, according to people who worked for him.

How far beyond TransHub TransHab did Genesis 1 and 2 go?

(very late response)
They got to orbit.

iRoll.  And I flew across the ocean a couple of years ago. 

--

Given the IP that they got with TransHub, how much more did they develop?

It takes a different type of organization to develop new technology as opposed to implementing existing one.

If you only know how to do the latter, you will quickly run out of steam.

A search of the USPTO will show the patents obtained by Bigelow for new IP.

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=0&f=S&l=50&TERM1=bigelow+aerospace&FIELD1=AANM&co1=OR&TERM2=&FIELD2=&d=PTXT

FWIW, it looks like there are 6 patents that match for "Bigelow Aerospace" in the applicant name field. Four are different types of tugs, one for habitats, and another for a bare-bones lander.

[yg1968]

It's disapointing that Bigelow wasn't at the Industry Day for the new Commercial LEO Destinations (free flyer habitat) program (see below):

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1375799375742525440