News Item: Why NASA is sending an inflatable house to space

[SSgt Baloo]

Is this the first time an inflatable habitat has been used in space, or has it been done before?

Link to the article: http://www.vox.com/2016/4/4/11360044/nasa-inflatable-house-mars-space-mission

Relevant NASAA link: http://www.nasa.gov/feature/beam-facts-figures-faqs

Edited April 4, 2016 by SSgt Baloo

[RainDreamer]

I am very sure Bigelow tested a few other inflatable modules in the past. Or were those canceled?...fuzzy memory atm.

Edited April 4, 2016 by RainDreamer

[sevenperforce]

They have tested them before -- not sure whether they used SpaceX for those launches or not -- but they have not tested them as add-on modules for the ISS before. And obviously they have not had people in space anywhere near them.

[SSgt Baloo]

I remember seeing this around the web:

Today I found (part of) the rest of the story: http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4308/ch9.htm

I once even drew a starship (fan art) for the Star Trek universe of an early UESPA vessel with an inflatable hull, the Bireme.

[Spaceception]

  On 4/4/2016 at 5:52 PM, SSgt Baloo said:

Is this the first time an inflatable habitat has been used in space, or has it been done before?

Link to the article: http://www.vox.com/2016/4/4/11360044/nasa-inflatable-house-mars-space-mission

Relevant NASAA link: http://www.nasa.gov/feature/beam-facts-figures-faqs

Expand  

Because it's lighter, cheaper, and takes up less space than solid modules, and that's PERFECT for large spacecraft.

[Nibb31]

  On 4/4/2016 at 5:52 PM, SSgt Baloo said:

Is this the first time an inflatable habitat has been used in space, or has it been done before?
 

Expand  

It's been done before. Bigelow launched two subscale demonstrators, Genesis I and II, in 2006 and 2007. They are both still up there.

[kiwi1960]

Cannot see it working, even if micrometeorites NEVER hit it, the fear will always be there.

 

[Spaceception]

  On 4/4/2016 at 8:25 PM, kiwi1960 said:

Cannot see it working, even if micrometeorites NEVER hit it, the fear will always be there.

Expand  

Bigelow has said that the flexible hull is just as strong as a solid one.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Spaceception

[sevenperforce]

  On 4/4/2016 at 8:25 PM, kiwi1960 said:

Cannot see it working, even if micrometeorites NEVER hit it, the fear will always be there.

Expand  

The flexible skin probably resists puncture even better than a rigid one.

[Mazon Del]

  On 4/4/2016 at 8:25 PM, kiwi1960 said:

Cannot see it working, even if micrometeorites NEVER hit it, the fear will always be there.

 

Expand  

That fear is still there for normal hull. Heck, on the first Moon missions I remember once reading about how the crew was acutely aware that if they were to elbow the wall hard enough or lose control of a pair of needle nose in certain areas there was a decent possibility of poking a hole in the hull.

[StrandedonEarth]

It's not actually inflatable. They prefer to use the term "expandable"

[Findthepin1]

  On 4/4/2016 at 8:28 PM, Spaceception said:

Bigelow has said that the flexible hull is just as strong as a solid one.

Expand  

Do you believe them? That doesn't sound right to me. 

[Spaceception]

  On 4/4/2016 at 10:21 PM, Findthepin1 said:

Do you believe them? That doesn't sound right to me. 

Expand  

 

[fredinno]

  On 4/4/2016 at 8:15 PM, SSgt Baloo said:

I remember seeing this around the web:

Today I found (part of) the rest of the story: http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4308/ch9.htm

I once even drew a starship (fan art) for the Star Trek universe of an early UESPA vessel with an inflatable hull, the Bireme.

Expand  

That kind of didn't count, it was almost useless for use anything more than a tech demonstrator, as it was too vulnerable to puncture by MMOD.

  On 4/4/2016 at 10:21 PM, Findthepin1 said:

Do you believe them? That doesn't sound right to me. 

Expand  

It uses Kevlar, so that's one reason...

[cubinator]

  On 4/4/2016 at 8:25 PM, kiwi1960 said:

Cannot see it working, even if micrometeorites NEVER hit it, the fear will always be there.

 

Expand  

I am pretty sure fabric has been shown to be a great absorber of impacts, so they may be even more safe than (single-walled) metal hulls.

[Robotengineer]

  On 4/4/2016 at 8:25 PM, kiwi1960 said:

Cannot see it working, even if micrometeorites NEVER hit it, the fear will always be there.

 

Expand  

Micrometeorites will blast a hole in a rigid walled module, what makes it especially dangerous to an inflatable module?

Edited April 5, 2016 by Robotengineer

[Nibb31]

  On 4/4/2016 at 10:21 PM, Findthepin1 said:

Do you believe them? That doesn't sound right to me. 

Expand  

It's actually much thicker and heavier, with more material to stop the MMOD from penetrating.

[RainDreamer]

  On 4/4/2016 at 10:21 PM, Findthepin1 said:

Do you believe them? That doesn't sound right to me. 

Expand  

You judge. This is the patent on what they intended to use to protect from micro meteorites:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20080296435A1/en?assignee=Bigelow+Aerospace

Edited April 5, 2016 by RainDreamer

[SSgt Baloo]

A year old, but relevant: 

 

 

[PB666]

  On 4/6/2016 at 2:19 PM, SSgt Baloo said:

A year old, but relevant: 

 

 

Expand  

Great, but do we need another ISS? Were are going to toss the current one in a decade.

Alot of the weight of the ISS is not dedicated to habitation space, each of those solar arrays weighs 14 tons. So its not a 1/5 reduction in weight, the launch profile is a definite improvement.
But we must remember that each ISS module goes up with most of the equipment installed. If you send up a compacted module, you won't also have space for the equipment, so you will have to bring up that equipment later and install it.

 

 

[SSgt Baloo]

Why is everyone else discussing whether this is a good idea instead of just discussing the technology and how it works? We aren't the committee that approves funding. We're hobbyists discussing science and technology.

[fredinno]

  On 4/6/2016 at 2:35 PM, PB666 said:

Great, but do we need another ISS? Were are going to toss the current one in a decade.

Alot of the weight of the ISS is not dedicated to habitation space, each of those solar arrays weighs 14 tons. So its not a 1/5 reduction in weight, the launch profile is a definite improvement.
But we must remember that each ISS module goes up with most of the equipment installed. If you send up a compacted module, you won't also have space for the equipment, so you will have to bring up that equipment later and install it.

 

 

Expand  

We do need another ISS, we need to keep doing zero-G research. Also, solar cells are becoming more efficient, and do not need to be as big as the ISS ones.

  On 4/6/2016 at 2:45 PM, SSgt Baloo said:

Why is everyone else discussing whether this is a good idea instead of just discussing the technology and how it works? We aren't the committee that approves funding. We're hobbyists discussing science and technology.

Expand  

Because that's what people here like to do, apparently. We make spacecraft, after all (virtually).

[RainDreamer]

Cause most people here are hobbyist engineer, not hobbyist scientists. Efficiency is their creed and waste is their enemy. So of course they would want to talk about the feasibility of a project first.

"Ask whether you should do it, before wondering if you could do it." - a kerbal engineer

 

Back to topic though, for those interested in the technology and want to see how they plan to make things happen, use Google patent and search for Bigelow Aerospace. They have a lot of patent related to expandable spacecraft modules. I made a few threads in the past about them.

Edited April 6, 2016 by RainDreamer

[Mahatma Kane Jeeves]

  On 4/4/2016 at 8:25 PM, kiwi1960 said:

Cannot see it working, even if micrometeorites NEVER hit it, the fear will always be there.

 

Expand  

Might be able to do something along the lines of self-sealing WWII aircraft fuel tanks. Might be better than the current structures in that regard.

[StrandedonEarth]

  On 4/6/2016 at 2:35 PM, PB666 said:

If you send up a compacted module, you won't also have space for the equipment, so you will have to bring up that equipment later and install it.

Expand  

The bigger expandable modules like the B330 are designed to have the equipment in the core, and once expanded the habitable space is between the core and the shell.

Edited April 7, 2016 by StrandedonEarth