Inflatable Space Stations

Hotel magnate Robert Bigelow is hoping to soon be able to send inflatable buildings into orbit, aiming to take over from a defunct Nasa project, TransHab. Article in The Statesman.

Space tourism, perhaps the most obvious target for a terrestrial hotel owner, is just one of several commercial possibilities. Once space hotels look a serious prospect, then entertainment venues, such as zero-gravity sporting arenas, are unlikely to be far behind. Bigelow forecasts that space’s near-zero gravity will make it a covetable destination for pharmaceutical companies. Protein crystals can be grown to larger sizes when liberated from the oppressive effects of gravity; larger crystals are easier to study, and so simplify drug design.

Genesis and Nautilus are built on the legacy of TransHab, a Nasa project to design inflatable modules for space. The modules, which would be inflated once in space, were meant to provide living room at the International Space Station and to become the template for habitats on the moon and Mars. Even though TransHab was in the advanced stages of testing at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, its future was punctured by rising costs and the reluctance of Congress to give the ISS more money.

According to one report, the demise of TransHab, which was essentially a three-storey apartment inside a cylindrical balloon, coincided with a visit by Bigelow to Nasa. On learning about the programme’s fate, he pledged to keep it going, apparently even salvaging parts from the agency’s rubbish bins. Space.com, the online newspaper, says that Bigelow Aerospace has paid for three patents covering inflatable space structures and now holds the sole rights to commercial development. Nasa, however, remains closely involved: Genesis will undergo vibration and vacuum-chamber testing at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Inflatables are viewed as a cheap, practical way to house people in space. The modules can be “flatpacked” into the noses of rockets — which means that they are relatively cheap to launch. The original TransHab had a deflated diameter of about 4.5 metres that doubled when inflated (probably using nitrogen gas), and a full height of about 14 metres. Most importantly, the usable volume was planned to be 330 cubic metres, providing more spacious living quarters than are currently available, and thus easing some psychological pressures of residing in space.

Nautilus is planning to sport similar dimensions, and is likely to exhibit other features similar to its predecessor, such as a thick shell designed to protect its inhabitants from bullet-speed meteorites and extremes of hot and cold. TransHab’s shell was composed of 12 layers, including Kevlar, which is used in bullet-proof body armour, and Nextel, a ceramic fabric.