NASA's decision to buy an inflatable new room for the International Space Station may push the module's builder commercial spaceflight company Bigelow Aerospace one step closer to establishing its own private stations in orbit.

Last week, NASA announced that it will pay $17.8 million for the Nevada-based company's Bigelow Expandable Activity Module(BEAM), which will be affixed to the huge orbiting lab as a technology demonstration.

NASA and Bigelow will discuss the deal during a media event Wednesday (Jan. 16) in North Las Vegas, where the company is headquartered. BEAM could help prove out the viability of inflatable crew habitats, potentially jump-starting Bigelow's ambitious plans in low-Earth orbit and, perhaps, on the surface of the moon.

Expanding access to space

Bigelow Aerospace was founded in 1999 by Robert Bigelow, who made his fortune in real estate and finance. He also owns the Budget Suites of America hotel chain, for example. [Photos: Bigelow's Inflatable Space Station Idea]

Bigelow Aerospace specializes in expandable habitats, which launch in a compact form and then inflate upon reaching space. The company says expandable modules offer greater on-orbit volume and better protection against radiation and micrometeoroid strikes than traditional "tin can" designs can provide.

Inflatable modules were first pursued seriously by NASA, which developed a design called TransHab (short for "Transit Habitat") for possible use on the International Space Station. When Congress cancelled the TransHab program in 2000, Bigelow officials licensed the patents and began adapting the technology for the company's own purposes.

The company's goals are big: to establish private space stationsthat could be used by many different clients for a variety of purposes, from research to tourism.

"We are primarily focused on providing sovereign clients (individual or groups of nations) and companies with the opportunity to lease space and resources aboard our habitats for a broad array of activities, ranging from turn-key astronautics to conducting ground-breaking and lucrative biotech research," Bigelow Aerospace's website states.

"We offer a way for countries to bolster their human spaceflight programs while at the same time reducing their budgets, or for smaller countries that thought human spaceflight was beyond their financial reach to enjoy capabilities that until now only the wealthiest nations have been able to sponsor."

Read more:

Inflatable Private Space Stations: Bigelow's Big Dream

Turning Dextre into an orbital gas station has the potential to not only save millions of dollars, as it returnsDextre, the Canadian robot companion to the International Space Station's Canadarm2, is currently running through a series of simulations designed to show that it can thwart the best intentions of satellite engineers and perform a task to refuel their creations while in orbit.

Satellites are designed with the full knowledge that, once in orbit, they will remain untouched as they perform their mission and they will eventually run out of fuel and fall back to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. With this in mind, engineers make them as sturdy as possible, so that they can survive the rigors of launching into orbit, and little thought is given to accessing any parts of the satellite once their mission has begun.

[ Related: Canada's robot begins 1st satellite refuelling job ]

However, Dextre is trying to show that this doesn't necessarily have to be the fate of an orbiting satellite. The series of experiments that it is performing are to demonstrate that it is capable of gaining access to the fuel cell of any orbiting satellite, carefully and methodically working its way past whatever hardware that might be in the way, refilling the fuel cell, and then putting everything back the way it was so that the satellite can be released to continue on its mission.

Turning Dextre into an orbital gas station has the potential to not only save millions of dollars, as it returns satellites to work that would normally need to be replaced, but also to make Earth-orbit a safer place by preventing these 'out-of-gas' satellites from becoming dangerous space debris that could pose risks to other satellites or the International Space Station.

[ Related: Space station to get $17.8M inflatable addition ]

Mathieu Caron, from the Canadian Space Agency, goes into more detail about the mission:

For all the latest in science and weather, follow @ygeekquinox on Twitter.

More here:

Canadian robot on space station performs first satellite refuelling tests

The International Space Station is getting an inflatable spare room.

The first-of-its-kind habitat built by Bigelow Aerospace LLC weighs 3,000 pounds and is made of a Kevlar-like material to withstand space debris and radiation. It looks more like a giant propane gas tank than a kids moon bounce and will be attached to a port on the space station.

It will rocket into space in 2015 with the blessing of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which last week awarded the firm a $17.8 million contract to demonstrate the technology. Eventually, Las Vegas hotelier Robert Bigelow wants to build separate stations that might be used as research laboratories orbiting Earth or to establish a permanent presence on the moon or Mars.

Ultimately, hes hoping to build hotels in low-earth orbit and have that be one of the up-and-coming space businesses -- this will give him more credibility, said Marco Caceres, a senior space analyst with Teal Group Corp. in Fairfax, Virginia. Theres a lot of people out there that say, Oh cmon, hotels in low-earth orbit -- thats a fantasy right? I believe he has the tools to do it.

The challenge will be finding customers, Caceres said in a phone interview. Bigelows primary focus is on corporations and governments interested in developing astronaut programs or doing research. Space tourism is secondary, and the company has tried to steer away from the space hotel label.

NASAs willingness to back the mission is a seal of approval, the company has said.

We look at this as a stepping stone with expandable technologies, Robert Bigelow, 68, said today during a press conference at his companys headquarters, about 10 miles north of the Las Vegas strip. We have ambitions to go to the moon someday.

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver echoed Bigelows enthusiasm for the project.

Its really our first commercial real estate in space, Garver said.

Bigelow plans to introduce a stand-alone station that can accommodate as many as 12 people by 2016, the company said. A flight to the planned Alpha Station would cost from $26.3 million to $36.8 million for a 60-day stay, depending on the taxi selected, according to the firm.

The rest is here:

NASA Goes Ikea to Test Inflatable Annex for Space Station

The international space station is getting a new, inflatable room that resembles a giant spare tire, NASA is set to announce Wednesday.

Slated to launch in 2015, the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, will fly to space deflated before being puffed into a 13-by-10-foot cylinder.

Rather than providing new living space for astronauts, the module will test whether inflatable habitats have a future as orbiting laboratories, lunar outposts or living quarters for deep-space missions.

And its arriving at a bargain price: NASA is paying Bigelow Aerospace of Nevada $17.8million for the module.

This is a great way for NASA to utilize private-sector investment, and for pennies on the dollar expand our understanding of this technology, said Lori Garver, the agencys deputy administrator.

Station astronauts will periodically enter the BEAM to check whether its thick yet flexible walls, which include layers of Kevlar, adequately block the twin hazards of space travel: radiation and micrometeorites traveling faster than bullets.

The plan is to have the hatch closed most of the time, with the crew going in and out a few times a year to collect data, Garver said. The module will stay attached to the station for up to two years.

Astronauts on long missions will need more room than afforded by the traditional aluminum-can-like modules of the space station, said Michael Gold, director of D.C. operations for Bigelow. Regardless of whether NASA wants to go back to the moon or even to Mars, expandable habitat technology is a virtual necessity, he said.

NASA developed the concept of inflatable habitats in the 1990s for a possible trip to Mars. After abandoning those plans, the agency licensed the idea to real estate and motel magnate Robert Bigelow.

Bigelow has sunk several hundred million dollars into his inflatable space habitats. In 2006 and 2007, his company successfully tested two small inflatable satellites launched by re-purposed Russian ballistic missiles.

Originally posted here:

International space station to receive inflatable module

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - A low-cost space dwelling that inflates like a balloon in orbit will be tested aboard the International Space Station, opening the door for commercial leases of future free-flying outposts and deep-space astronaut habitats for NASA.

The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, nicknamed BEAM, will be the third orbital prototype developed and flown by privately owned Bigelow Aerospace.

The Las Vegas-based company, founded in 1999 by Budget Suites of America hotel chain owner Robert Bigelow, currently operates two small unmanned experimental habitats called Genesis 1, launched in 2006, and Genesis 2, which followed a year later.

BEAM, about 13 feet long and 10.5 feet in diameter when inflated, is scheduled for launch in mid-2015 aboard a Space Exploration Technologies' Dragon cargo ship, said Mike Gold, director of operations for Bigelow Aerospace.

"It will be the first expandable habitat module ever constructed for human occupancy," Gold said.

A successful test flight on the space station would be a stepping stone for planned Bigelow-staffed orbiting outposts that the company plans to lease to research organizations, businesses and wealthy individuals wishing to vacation in orbit.

Bigelow has invested about $250 million in inflatable habitation modules so far. It has preliminary agreements with seven non-U.S. space and research agencies in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia, Singapore, Japan, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates.

"The value to me personally and to our company is doing a project with NASA," Robert Bigelow said. "This is our first opportunity to do that. We do have other ambitions."

NASA, which will pay Bigelow Aerospace $17.8 million for the BEAM habitat, also is interested in the technology to house crew during future expeditions beyond the space station, a $100 billion research complex that flies about 250 miles above Earth.

"Whether you're going to the surface of the moon or even Mars, the benefits of expandable habitats are critical for any exploration mission," Gold said.

See original here:

Balloon-like dwelling to be tested on Int'l Space Station