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Bigelow Aerospace’s Promise: More Space at Less Cost with Inflatable Space Habitats
Written by Lloyd Campbell
We’ve all seen or played in one of those inflatable bounce houses at a carnival or a friend’s birthday party. Now just imagine a bounce house that you can live inside of in outer space. While much more advanced than a bounce house, that’s what Bigelow Aerospace is pursuing. They are designing and building inflatable habitats that can be used in outer space, providing work and living areas while protecting the occupants from the harsh environment of space.
When you look at the International Space Station modules, they are hard shelled, looking very sturdy and strong, so the idea of something that inflates to become a module that humans can inhabit seems very farfetched, but not to Bigelow Aerospace founder Robert Bigelow.
The idea of inflatable spacecraft is not exactly new. In 1958, the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, first started a project to design and build such a spacecraft. ….
Read the rest of the story at RocketSTEM: http://www.rocketstem.org/2014/03/12/bigelow-promises-more-space-at-less-cost-with-inflatable-space-habitats/
