Monthly Archives: January 2013

by Nancy Atkinson on January 11, 2013

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NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver is given a tour of the Bigelow Aerospace facilities in 2011 by the companys President Robert Bigelow. Photo: NASA/Bill Ingalls

The next addition to the International Space Station will likely be an inflatable module from Bigelow Aerospace. NASA announced today they have awarded a $17.8 million contract to Bigelow to provide a new module for the ISS. The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module will demonstrate the benefits of this space habitat technology for future exploration and commercial space endeavors, NASA said in a press release. This would be the first privately built module to be added to the space station.

The International Space Station is a unique laboratory that enables important discoveries that benefit humanity and vastly increase understanding of how humans can live and work in space for long periods, NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said. This partnership agreement for the use of expandable habitats represents a step forward in cutting-edge technology that can allow humans to thrive in space safely and affordably, and heralds important progress in U.S. commercial space innovation.

NASA will release more information about the agreement and the module next week, but previous reports have indicated the inflatable module would be used for adding additional storage and workspace, and the module would be certified to remain on-orbit for two years. NASA has been in discussions with Bigelow for several years about using their inflatable technology.

In 2006 Bigelow launched their Genesis I inflatable test module into orbit and according to their website, it is still functioning and continuing to produce invaluable images, videos and data for Bigelow Aerospace. It is now demonstrating the long-term viability of expandable habitat technology in an actual orbital environment.

A second Genesis module was launched in 2007 and it, too, is still functioning in orbit. Bigelow has said that even though the outer shell of their module is soft, as opposed to the rigid outer shell of current modules at the ISS, Bigelows inflatable modules are more resistant to micrometeoroid or orbital debris strikes. Bigelow uses multiple layers of Vectran, a material which is twice as strong as Kevlar. In ground tests, according to NASASpacefight.com, objects that would penetrate ISS modules only penetrated half-way through the skin of Bigelows modules.

Tagged as: Bigelow Aerospace, Commercial Space, Space Station

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Bigelow Inflatable Module Will be Added to Space Station

Reflecting on a recent photo he snapped from outer space of war-torn Syria, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield appealed for peace from his perch in the sky, saying Thursday: "We're all in this together."

"The perspective that we are subject to, that we are privileged enough to see directly with our eyes, is one I think would benefit everyone, to go around the world in just slightly over 90 minutes... you see it as one place," Hadfield told a news conference streamed from the International Space Station.

MUST READ: ISS Astronaut Reports to Captain Kirk

"And so when we do look down on a place that is currently in great turmoil or strife, it's hard to reconcile the inherent patience and beauty of the world with the terrible things that we can do to each other as people and can do to the Earth itself," he said.

On Jan. 2, Hadfield had posted a picture of Latakia, Syria, on his Twitter account with the message: "Deceptively calm and beautiful, strife-torn on the shore on the sea. Peaceful from such a distance."

ANALYSIS: Space Station Will Turn to Face the Sun

Syria has been steeped in conflict for the past 21 months, with the violence claiming the lives of more than 60,000 people, according to the United Nations.

Hadfield rocketed into space in December to become the first Canadian to command the International Space Station, which orbits the Earth from a distance of 350 kilometers (217 miles), circling the planet every 90 minutes at a speed of 28,000 kilometers per hour.

"If people, I think, could see the perspective more clearly... (they would glean) that understanding of the fact that we're all in this together," he said Thursday. "Yes, there's important territorial issues and important personal issues but at the same time with increased communication and with increased understanding comes a more global perspective," he added.

PHOTOS: Inside Atlantis' Final Space Station Mission

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Space Station Astronaut Calls for Syria Peace

With a price tag of $100 billion, the International Space Station may be the ultimate "crib," and now an Internet video production company has given the orbiting lab the MTV treatment.

The station tour, assembled by company Now This News from video footage recorded of NASA astronaut Sunita Williams,leads viewers on an "MTV Cribs" style visit throughInternational Space Station, which is the largest manmade structure in space. The station, which today is home to six astronauts from Russia, the United States and Canada, is as long as a football field and has about 29,600 cubic feet (838 cubic meters) of living spacethe equivalent of a five-bedroom home.

The 2.5-minute Now This News video is actually edited together from a series of videos (totaling nearly 30 minutes of footage) recorded by Williams in November when she was commanding the space station's Expedition 33 mission.The Cribs-like homage comes complete with slow motion and sped up shots set to pulsing background music and an in-depth explanation of the space station's bathroom facilities.

"We have some nice tissues," Williams said, "and then if things get really out of control we have disinfectant wipes."

Williams leads the video team through the gym, kitchen and sleeping quarters, ultimately ending the tour in the cupola a small glass outcropping on the bottom of the space station.

"It's like a glass bottom boat," Williams said. "It's one of those places you find yourself hanging out in all the time because all you want to do is look back at our planet."[Inside the Space Station (Infographic)]

Williams' full tour includes an explanation of what it's like to sleep and brush your teeth in microgravity.

NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texasthe same people responsible for the Gangnam Style parody,"NASA Johnson Style"put out their own "Cribs" knock off with astronaut Mike Fincke's tour of the Space Station Mock-Up and Training Facility. Check out the video here.

You can watch NASA's full series - which includes a more in-depth look at life aboard the space station, on SPACE.com below:

Space Station Tour:Kitchen, Bedrooms & The Latrine

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Tour the Space Station MTV 'Cribs' Style (Video)

Would you trust a 16-year-old in space? NASA evidently does. Just after the sun rose on the East Coast today (Jan. 11), astronauts aboard the International Space Station ran computer instructions, written by high school students, in bowling ball-size satellites floating inside the ISS cabin. The students' code told the satellites exactly where to go to complete challenges such as spitting out dust clouds and avoiding obstacles.

Ceding control of small satellites to students is part of an annual competition called theZero Robotics SPHERES Challenge, which is hosted by NASA, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Today's run is the Zero Robotics finals. Those interested canwatch a live broadcastof the event. Fifteen teams from the United States and Europe are competing to get their satellites to perform tasks related to cleaning up space junk.

"SPHERES" stands forSynchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites. MIT, NASA and DARPA researchers use SPHERES to test spacecraft maneuvers, such as docking and flying in formation.

This year the students had to program their SPHERES to deploy dust clouds that couldremove space junkfrom orbit, dock with another satellite to harvest its parts, and maneuver through an unknown field full of debris. The SPHERES had to perform all of those tasks autonomously, just as spacecraft would, once an ISS astronaut activated their code.

In the U.S., participating students watched their code at work over a direct transmission from the International Space Station, shown at the MIT campus. The European students watched from the European Space Research and Technology Center in the Netherlands.

This story was provided byTechNewsDaily, a sister site to SPACE.com. Follow TechNewsDaily on Twitter @TechNewsDaily, or on Facebook.

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High Schoolers Control Satellites Aboard Space Station

NASA has officially signed a deal to attach an inflatable private module to the International Space Station, space agency officials confirmed today (Jan. 11).

Under the new deal, NASA will pay $17.8 million to the Nevada-based private spaceflight firm Bigelow Aerospace for the company's Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), which will be affixed to the orbiting lab as a technology demonstration.

"This partnership agreement for the use of expandable habitats represents a step forward in cutting-edge technology that can allow humans to thrive in space safely and affordably, and heralds important progress in U.S. commercial space innovation," NASA deputy chief Lori Garver said in a statement.

Today's announcement confirms reports thatsurfaced earlier this week. Garver and Bigelow founder and president Robert Bigelow will discuss the BEAM program at a media event Jan. 16 at Bigelow Aerospace facilities in North Las Vegas, NASA officials said.

BEAM is likely to be similar to Bigelow's Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 prototypes, which the company launched to orbit in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Both Genesis modules are 14.4 feet long by 8.3 feet wide (4.4 by 2.5 meters), with about 406 cubic feet (11.5 cubic m) of pressurized volume.

NASA officials have said that BEAM could be on orbit about two years after getting an official go-ahead. The module will likely be launched by one of the agency's commerical cargo suppliers, California-based SpaceX or Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp.

Bigelow's dreams don't stop at the International Space Station. The company wants to launch and link up several of its larger expandable modules to create private space stations, which could be used by a variety of clients.

Tenants could get to orbiting Bigelow habitats in several different ways. The company has set up a partnership with SpaceX for use of its Dragon spacecraft and another one with Boeing, to use the aerospace giant's CST-100 capsule.

Bigelow is also eyeing a possible outpost on the moon, for which the company envisions using its BA-330 modules (so named because they offer 330 cubic meters of usable internal volume). Several BA-330 habitats, along with propulsion tanks and power units, would be joined together in space and then flown down to the lunar surface.

Lunar dirt would be piled over the modules to protect against radiation, thermal extremes and micrometeorite strikes. Then clients be they explorers, scientists or tourists could move in and set up shop on the moon.

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NASA Buys Private Inflatable Room for Space Station