FYI,

"Bigelow Aerospace to Tackle Inflatable Space Habitats"
Space.com
http://www.space.com/news/businessmonday_040524.html

: Making "space available" is at the heart of the global travel,
: tourist and lodging industry. That business axiom is no stranger to
: Robert Bigelow, owner of the Budget Suites of America Hotel Chain.

: But now the North Las Vegas, Nevada-based Bigelow is putting his
: money down on inflatable Earth orbiting modules. He's intent on
: attracting not only high-flying sightseers, but those hungering to
: crank out made-in-space products and evaluate microgravity
: processes.

: Bigelow's plan is to establish a habitable commercial space station
: for research, manufacturing, entertainment and other uses.

: Bigelow Aerospace is developing the Genesis Pathfinder -- one-third
: scale hardware meant to shakeout the bugs in a much larger space
: habitat tagged the Nautilus.

: The first Genesis test is now slated for launch in November 2005
: onboard the maiden voyage of the Falcon V -- an offshoot of the
: yet-to-fly private booster being designed by Space Exploration
: Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) in El Segundo, California. That
: agreement has been confirmed by SpaceX chief rocketeer, Elon Musk.

: Plans are also afoot to loft a second Genesis Pathfinder module in
: April 2006. For this in-orbit evaluation, Bigelow Aerospace has
: executed a non-technical framework agreement that, pending a U.S.
: State Department go-ahead, would use a Dnepr booster under contract
: with ISC Kosmotras, a Russian and Ukrainian rocket-for-hire company.

: Bigelow Aerospace and Kosmotras have agreed to financial terms for
: one or more Dnepr launches. The U.S. firm is awaiting U.S. State
: Department approval before moving ahead with technical discussions.

: Bigelow Aerospace has been working on space inflatable modules,
: picking up where NASA's inflatable TransHab project ended, or was
: deflated partly due to political wrangling.

: TransHab had undergone extensive testing at NASA's Johnson Space
: Center in Houston, Texas. The inflatable module was designed to
: offer far more volume to live-in crews of the International Space
: Station (ISS) and could have been utilized as habitats for Moon and
: Mars dwellers.

: Technical issues, escalating cost and Congressional pressure to
: avoid adding more uncertainty to the ISS program led to a shutdown
: of the NASA TransHab effort.

: Working with NASA's Johnson Space Center's Technology Transfer and
: Commercialization Office, Bigelow signed in 2002 -- and has since
: renewed twice -- a NASA Space Act Agreement. That agreement enabled
: the private group and NASA to work together on evaluating next
: generation inflatable/expandable space module technology, Gold
: explained.

: Gold told SPACE.com that Bigelow Aerospace has also secured two
: patents that NASA held in regard to inflatable space structures.
: Bigelow Aerospace paid NASA "a substantial sum" he added, to acquire
: the sole rights to commercial development of the inflatable
: technology represented by those patents.

: In March, Bigelow Aerospace executed another exclusive licensing
: agreement with NASA, this time involving a NASA patent on shielding
: technology, Gold noted.

: Gold said that in late summer and early fall of this year, Bigelow
: Aerospace sub-scale modules will be undergoing vibration and vacuum
: chamber testing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
: California. The testing is being done under the auspices of the NASA
: Space Act Agreement.

: "We're looking forward to continuing to work with NASA as we
: transform the dream of affordable space structures into reality,"
: Gold explained.

: Bigelow has taken a go-it-alone, do-it-myself approach to inflatable
: space structures.

: "We're not taking any government money for the development of our
: spacecraft. This is purely driven by private-sector money and we are
: neither accepting nor soliciting external third-party funds," Gold
: advised.

: In a very real sense, the Genesis Pathfinder is a trial balloon. It
: will demonstrate systems to be used on a full-scale inflatable space
: structure. The first mission next year will focus on the inflation
: process itself. Special built-in monitoring cameras and other
: instruments are to relay inflation information and gauge vessel
: integrity. Solar cells are to power the structure's command and
: control equipment. Onboard telemetry gear will relay "how's it going
: data" down to Earth.

: At launch, Genesis will weigh roughly 3,000 pounds (1,360 kilograms)
: and sport dimensions about 15 feet (4.6 meters) in length and
: 6.2 feet (1.9 meters) in diameter. With a huff and a puff, the
: structure is to essentially double in diameter size once in orbit.

: Sub-scale testing of Genesis would evolve to the Nautilus. This
: larger inflatable design is expected to tip the scales at between
: 45,000 to 50,000 pounds (20,000 to 23,000 kilograms) fully loaded.
: Once fully-inflated this module would be roughly 45 feet
: (13.7 meters) long and 22 feet (6.7 meters) in diameter.

: "Most importantly, the Nautilus will contain 330 cubic meters of
: usable volume," Gold said.

: Gold said the technology offers several advantages. For one, an
: expandable structure can be tightly packed inside a variety of
: rocket nose farings, at econo-class prices. Additional, once in
: orbit, they offer increased pressurized volume for crew and
: experiments. Lastly, they provide a lot of instant room at low-cost.

: "We have evaluated a lot of NASA TransHab work and have moved on
: substantially from where they were," Gold said. "We are continuing
: to aggressively pursue the development of next generation expandable
: space structures. Building a real private-sector marketplace in
: space cannot be done by any one nation alone. Instead it will
: require a global mix of talents, resources, and technologies," he
: said.

Mark Reiff