Next calendar week , a rather exciting development is going to take place on the International Space Station ( ISS ) . For the first time , NASA is belong to essay the viability of an inflatable , expandable mental faculty , a derivative of which may one day be used for missions to deep outer space , including to Mars .
TheBigelow Expandable Activity Module , or BEAM , has been germinate under contract by the Las Vegas - based private society Bigelow Aerospace . Back in 2006 and 2007 , they first essay that the engineering work with their unmanned Genesis 1 and 2 habitats in Earth celestial orbit . Now , that same engineering will be employed on the ISS .
BEAM will be launch in the body ( back ) incision of SpaceX ’s upcoming Dragon flight on April 8 , 2016 . The faculty is launched in a compact form , about four times modest than its final bulk , measuring 2.4 beat ( 7.75 metrical unit ) across and 1.7 meters ( 5.7 foot ) long . Its last size will be 3.2 by 3.7 metre ( 10.5 by 12 feet ) , with an national intensity of 16 three-dimensional meters ( 565 three-dimensional feet ) .
“ We ’re rosy to have the infinite station to demonstrate potential habitation capabilities like BEAM , ” said Jason Crusan , director of Advanced Exploration Systems at NASA , in astatementearlier this month . “ Station provides us with a long - duration microgravity platform with ceaseless bunch memory access to evaluate systems and technologies we are consider for succeeding missions further into mysterious space . ”
BEAM will be attached to the Tranquility node on the ISS by the station ’s robotic arm . However , although the launching is take place next week , BEAM is not actually scheduled to be installed until the oddment of May , according to Rajib Dasgupta , NASA project and technical desegregation manager for BEAM , in a press briefing yesterday .
To inflate , the module will be pumped full of gas , with full deployment require to take about 45 minutes . Once it is up and running , the ISS crew will equal its air with that on the post , let them to enter the module . Although they are only scheduled to pass up to three hours in there at a time , it could essentially do as an supernumerary elbow room .
But BEAM will not be used to aid astronaut operations just yet . rather , this is just a demonstration of the engineering , so the astronauts will be tax with installing detector inside the module . These will gather thermal , radiation , and touch on data throughout the functional life-time of BEAM , wait to be two geezerhood , after which it will be sent to burn up in Earth ’s atmosphere .
BEAM is seen here in its succinct shape being loaded into Dragon ’s trunk . SpaceX
The impact data will be especially of sake . module on the ISS must be hardened against potential outer space debris , such as micrometeorites , so BEAM will have to turn up it is up to the task . However , Bigelow is keeping the precise design of the shell of BEAM under wraps , although it is thought to be some sort of diffused layered body structure , at least part of which is made of Kevlar .
Bigelow Aerospace hasgrander ambitionsthan just attaching a demonstrator to the ISS , though . The fellowship has made no secret of its desire to use these modules to build some sort of individual space post in sphere , perhaps a privately run research facility or hotel that steady hoi polloi can visit . In the public press briefing , Lisa Kauke , BEAM deputy course of study handler at Bigelow Aerospace , enounce this was the “ first step to man spacecraft . ” And NASA isclearly interestedin the applied science , too .
Whether Bigelow ’s plan ever comes to fruition remains to be seen . But this test should prove to be exciting all the same , so verify you tune in for the launching of SpaceX ’s Dragon ballistic capsule atop a Falcon 9 skyrocket next week , when another attempt at landing the garden rocket back on Earth will also be made – although perhaps , for once , this will be overshadowed by what ’s on add-in the roquette .
