Author Topic: From Space Station to Moon Base – Bigelow expands on inflatable ambitions (Read 22570 times)

Chris Bergin · « **on:** 05/30/2013 03:32 pm »

Will cross link in several active threads, but this deserves a standalone.

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/05/space-station-moon-base-bigelows-expands-inflatable-ambitions/

Article by Chris Gebhart and Yves-A. Grondin, who put a lot of hard work in this during various stages of the copy.

JSC Phil · « **Reply #1 on:** 05/30/2013 03:49 pm »

Very interesting read with a lot of depth. Appreciate the effort!

Hodapp · « **Reply #2 on:** 05/30/2013 03:53 pm »

Good article and promising for the future!
Like all the private/gov't partnership stuff!
Onto the moon!

AndyX · « **Reply #3 on:** 05/30/2013 04:11 pm »

That's really exciting news. I hope they can get the support and make it all happen!

kcrick · « **Reply #4 on:** 05/30/2013 04:36 pm »

I agree. Very exciting news!

Good article !

mrmandias · « **Reply #5 on:** 05/30/2013 04:46 pm »

NSF.com, best free space content around (and best subscription content too). Loved the article.

yg1968 · « **Reply #6 on:** 05/30/2013 04:51 pm »

Quote from: Hodapp on 05/30/2013 03:53 pm

Onto the moon!

Although Gerst said that he welcomes the private sector's enthusiasm for lunar surface missions, he stopped well short of committing any NASA funds towards it. Bigelow also emphasized that the moon base was part of their long term plans but that it wasn't really the focus of this study. The Obama Administration's focus is on Mars and Asteroids. The Moon is essentially off the table. Bigelow's more immediate concern is his LEO Alpha Station. He said that he had extensive conversations with JAXA (Japan), the UAE (United Arab Emirates) government and a couple of other countries in the Middle East as potential customers for the Alpha station. But he also needs NASA as a customer. The good news is that NASA seems to be open to the idea of using Bigelow's Alpha Station as either a complement or successor to the ISS.

Incidentally, you can listen to the press conference here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkVEGGLYNN4&feature=youtu.be

montyrmanley · « **Reply #7 on:** 05/30/2013 04:55 pm »

Maybe things are finally coming together to push HSF forward in a major way. I hope so.

HSF has been little more than a long series of disappointments since Apollo ended. Remember how sanguinely the scientists and engineers talked of moon-bases and cities in space by 1985, and colonies on Mars by 2000? And yet forty years later we can't even get our own astronauts back into space, much less back to the moon.

I understand the reasons for it. Space Is Hard(tm). It's expensive. It's risky, both in terms of dollars and in human lives. The United States is a far, far more risk-averse nation now than it was back in the mid-1960's. I understand the reasons...but it's no less maddening.

So to SpaceX, Orbital, Bigelow, Virgin Galactic, and the other "New Space" companies...please hurry. I'm not getting any younger.

docmordrid · « **Reply #8 on:** 05/30/2013 05:20 pm »

Great report Chris and Yves, as usual.

Wow....if this were to come together things could get real exciting around here - and the bandwidth will go geometric. There goes the L2 prices

rcoppola · « **Reply #9 on:** 05/30/2013 05:26 pm »

Excellent article guys. Really excellent. Thanks.

The fact they will actually be building and testing to scale in the lake beds is quite exciting. Imagine 2 Olympus modules based on the moon.

Someone better get started on that lander...

I wonder how you could get a few of those down to the surface of mars.
Could we scale up the sky-crane method?

ChefPat · « **Reply #10 on:** 05/30/2013 05:28 pm »

Wow. Top notch article Chris and Yves. Thank you.

docmordrid · « **Reply #11 on:** 05/30/2013 05:32 pm »

Quote from: rcoppola on 05/30/2013 05:26 pm

>
The fact they will actually be building and testing to scale in the lake beds is quite exciting. Imagine 2 Olympus modules based on the moon.
>
I wonder how you could get a few of those down to the surface of mars.
Could we scale up the sky-crane method?

Read the patent -

Google Patents....

CriX · « **Reply #12 on:** 05/30/2013 05:39 pm »

Great article and exciting times. It's still a little confusing what NASA has to do with this all, since its almost like Bigelow is acting as a proxy information gatherer for missions that ultimately will not be funded by NASA(?).

In any case, it's fantastic that all the thoughts and proposals from these various companies is being put together to find out what "makes the most sense" for moving forward collectively.

rcoppola · « **Reply #13 on:** 05/30/2013 05:44 pm »

Quote from: yg1968 on 05/30/2013 05:31 pm

Quote from: rcoppola on 05/30/2013 05:26 pm
The fact they will actually be building and testing to scale in the lake beds is quite exciting. Imagine 2 Olympus modules based on the moon.

Bigelow said his moon base are more likely to be BA-330s. The Guide is going to be the size of a car. So it won't be up to scale.

Sigh...Yes, I know he stated BA330 for the moon. I was simply imagining what could be done with the 2100.

And as for the lake bed tests, he said they will be using a "Scale" version testing. Which obviously means not full size but all components to "scale" so tests can be extrapolated out to the full size version.

yg1968 · « **Reply #14 on:** 05/30/2013 06:10 pm »

Quote from: CriX on 05/30/2013 05:39 pm

Great article and exciting times. It's still a little confusing what NASA has to do with this all, since its almost like Bigelow is acting as a proxy information gatherer for missions that ultimately will not be funded by NASA(?).

In any case, it's fantastic that all the thoughts and proposals from these various companies is being put together to find out what "makes the most sense" for moving forward collectively.

NASA is trying to find private sector missions that will complement SLS and Orion. The private sector missions would be funded by NASA though private-public partnerships. Unfortunately, very little was said about the Lagrange points and cislunar missions. But I suspect that there are some commercial missions that could complement the SLS missions in that region. For example, I wouldn't be surprised to see Bigelow suggest a Bigelow station at L2 supplied by a Falcon Heavy.

ChileVerde · « **Reply #15 on:** 05/30/2013 06:58 pm »

Quote from: yg1968 on 05/30/2013 06:10 pm

Unfortunately, very little was said about the Lagrange points and cislunar missions. But I suspect that there is some commercial missions that could complement the SLS missions in that region. For example, I wouldn't be surprised to see Bigelow suggest a Bigelow station at L2 supplied by a Falcon Heavy.

You have an interesting thought there: Could, for example, a Bigelow EML2 station serve usefully as a gateway to and from a heisted asteroid in low lunar orbit? (For values of "usefully" commensurate with the heist.)

Robert Thompson · « **Reply #16 on:** 05/30/2013 07:30 pm »

Chris Gebhart and Yves-A. Grondin

There will be sufficient excitement for one day if a BA-330 is proved out in LEO and starts to take on international / commercial astronauts through commercial transportation. It'll be dizzying. Bonus points for national/commercial science experiments. Cliffs of insanity for commercially launched tourism to an inflatable. Gone to plaid if any of that commercial transport is upgraded orbital reusable incarnations of VG or XCOR. Plus, the albedo and surface area of a Bigelow inflatable passing overhead will provide prime teaching moments on access, progress, peaceful conquest, possibility.

Lar · « **Reply #17 on:** 05/30/2013 07:46 pm »

Quote from: docmordrid on 05/30/2013 05:32 pm

Quote from: rcoppola on 05/30/2013 05:26 pm
>
The fact they will actually be building and testing to scale in the lake beds is quite exciting. Imagine 2 Olympus modules based on the moon.
>
I wonder how you could get a few of those down to the surface of mars.
Could we scale up the sky-crane method?

Read the patent -

Google Patents....

Anyone able to translate that from patent-ese into english? I tried and failed.

MarkWhittington · « **Reply #18 on:** 05/30/2013 09:49 pm »

I think Gerst is playing a long game with this Bigelow gambit. He must know, as the NRC report indicated, that there is zero support for the asteroid thing outside the White House and upper NASA management. But a simple return to a Constellation style return to the moon may be a hard sale as well. This will develop a plan for the next administration to focus back on the moon, but do it in a new, innovative way.

Rocket Science · « **Reply #19 on:** 05/30/2013 09:59 pm »

Great article!

I like to see alternative methodologies for getting things done. Let’s see if this gains any traction....