The Countdown, Episode 14 – Inflatable Space Station, Monkey Launch, Lunar Hedgehogs, Martian Groundwater, Saturn's …

[The text below is a modified transcript of this video.]

5) Inflatable Space Station

Were this close to having a bouncy castle in space. NASA just ordered an inflatable module that will attach to the International Space Station.

Start up company Bigelow Aerospace won an 18 million dollar contract from NASA to build the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM. The module is just 4 meters long and 3.2 meters in diameter. Thats a little bit larger than your average car, but its designed to provide more living space for the ISS.

BEAM will travel to the space station in 2015, where it will be installed and inflated. For two years, the module will be monitored and tested to see how it holds up.

Then, BEAM will detach, fall towards Earth, and burn up. Because the walls of the inflatable module are about four times lighter than those currently used on the ISS, theyre much cheaper to lift into orbit. Their light weight could make blow-up modules the space technology of the future, whether used as free-floating space stations or for moon bases.

4) Monkey Launch

Last week, the Iranian space agency said it wants to launch a monkey into spaceagain. The first attempt, in the summer of 2011, failed. Officials gave no details about what went wrong.

According to the Iranians, within the next month a live Rhesus monkey will be launched into space aboard a Safir rocket. The monkey will reach a sub-orbit altitude and assuming everything goes to plan, return to Earth safely.

The Iranian government has said it wants send an astronaut into space by 2020 and to the moon by 2025. So, sending a monkey would be a significant first step. In the 1950s and 60s the US, French, and Russian governments tested the safety of their spacecraft by sending dogs, monkeys, and even chimps into space.

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The Countdown, Episode 14 - Inflatable Space Station, Monkey Launch, Lunar Hedgehogs, Martian Groundwater, Saturn's ...