Josh Cryer: 1 revision

2009-01-21T11:02:29Z

1 revision

Josh Cryer: Reverted edit of LabolIlicn, changed back to last version by Maxie

2009-01-20T13:34:26Z

Reverted edit of LabolIlicn, changed back to last version by Maxie

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[[Image:Transhab-cutaway.jpg|thumb|240px|right|Cut away view of a Transhab concept.]]

One of the barriers to affordable space endeavour is the high cost of launching spacecrafts. One of the directions which could be taken to reduce such costs is to make inflatable spacecrafts which should weight less than current metallic ones.

Developed at NASA as part of a project called TransHab, inflatable space-station modules have some important advantages over their tin-can counterparts. They weigh significantly less, and they launch in a compressed state, with their fabric hulls wrapped tightly around their rigid cores like a roll of paper towels. This allows them to use less-powerful launch vehicles and makes for roomier space stations.

This basic architecture was created by NASA senior engineer William Schneider, in an effort that began in 1997. For a while, it was seriously considered as an alternative to the International Space Station (ISS) Habitation Module under development at the time by Boeing. But TransHab was cancelled in 2000.

After TransHab was cancelled, Bigelow bought the exclusive development rights from NASA and entered into a Space Act Agreement with the agency to allow him to work with former TransHab engineers still employed there. And he tracked down Schneider, by then retired from NASA and teaching at Texas A&M University.
These days Schneider and his former TransHab colleagues visit the plant every few weeks to provide guidance to Bigelow’s engineers.

After a rocket fires a module into space, explosive bolts will release the girdle securing the compressed hull, and then the station’s life support system, housed in the core, will inflate the structure with breathable air, expanding it from 15 feet in diameter to 22 feet. Power comes from solar panels that unfold from the rigid bulkheads at each end of the module. Each bulkhead also houses an airlock and a docking adaptor. Astronauts arriving later enter a shirtsleeve environment in which they can go to work unpacking removable panels, equipment and supplies from the core to create three levels of living and working space. A docked rocket engine called a multi-directional propulsion bus (MDPB) will eventually allow the station—the first one is tentatively called CSS (Commercial Space Station) Skywalker—to maneuver within Earth’s orbit or even leave it, for, say, a trip to the moon.

The MicroMeteoroid and Orbital Debris (MMOD) shield will fold for launch and then deploy in space. It is composed of five layers of graphite-fiber composites separated by foam spacers, the MMOD is the outermost section of Nautilus’s hull. Schneider’s crew’s original TransHab design had more stopping power than did aluminum three inches thick. Ground-testing of Bigelow’s MMOD has shown that it can stop impacts by 5/8-inch-diameter aluminum pellets fired at it at 6.4 kilometers a second, several times as fast as a rifle bullet. No rigid spacecraft design can match this performance, and it’s one of the reasons Nautilus has an expected life span of at least 15 years. Getting the MMOD to fold properly for launch is a major engineering challenge.

[[Category:Spacecraft and Launch Vehicles]]
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Inflatable spacecraft - Revision history

Josh Cryer: 1 revision

Josh Cryer: Reverted edit of LabolIlicn, changed back to last version by Maxie