Expanding on Bigelow’s inflatable for ISS
Baku, January 14 (AZERTAC). NASA managers are set to provide details on the deal they have signed with Bigelow Aerospace for an inflatable module to become part of the International Space Station (ISS). The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) will be a vital testbed for future applications and may ride to the ISS inside the trunk of a SpaceX Dragon.
The announcement comes two years after International Space Station Program (ISSP) managers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston held a two-day meeting to discuss the prospect of adding a Bigelow Aerospace inflatable module to the ISS.
The Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) ran between the 12th and 13th of January in 2011, fostering numerous meetings between the Agency and Bigelow Aerospace ahead of this announcement.
NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver and Bigelow Aerospace Founder and President Robert Bigelow will discuss the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module program to the media on Wednesday, January 16, at Bigelow Aerospace facilities in Las Vegas.
“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,” Ms 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.”
Bigelow Aerospace was founded by Robert Bigelow in 1998. The company is a pioneering world leader in the area of expandable space station modules.
Following the cancellation of NASA’s ISS TransHab inflatable module in 1999 due to budgetary and schedule issues, Bigelow licensed the cancelled TransHab technology from NASA via three Space Act agreements.
Over the next 10 years, Bigelow invested and researched heavily into inflatable technology, with a view to one day making it available to paying customers in the form of an orbital hotel complex. To date, Bigelow has successfully launched two small, uncrewed inflatable demonstration modules - Genesis I in 2006, andGenesis II in 2007.
Both NASA and Bigelow stand to gain from putting an inflatable module on the ISS. Given the fact that inflatable modules could play a major role in any future NASA interplanetary spacecraft or surface base, NASA could gain valuable in-flight data from an inflatable module on ISS, as well as much-needed stowage space.
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