AP
In this January 16, 2013 photo made available by NASA, the organisation’s deputy administrator Lori Garver and Robert T. Bigelow, president and founder of Bigelow Aerospace, stand next to the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module during a news conference in Las Vegas.
TOPICS
science and technology
space programme
Expandable habitats are designed to take up less room on a rocket, but provide greater volume once expanded.
For the first time, the International Space Station (ISS) will be equipped with an expandable habitable structure that has the potential to revolutionise work on the orbital laboratory.
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, launched on a Falcon 9 rocket, is delivering almost 3,175kg of cargo, including the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), to the ISS..
BEAM will arrive in Dragon’s unpressurised trunk and, after about five days, will be removed and attached to the station. Expansion is targeted for the end of May. The module will expand to roughly 10 feet in diametre. It will provide 565 cubic ft of volume where a crew member will enter the module three to four times a year to retrieve sensor data and assess conditions.
Expandable habitats are designed to take up less room on a rocket, but provide greater volume once expanded.
This first in situ test of the module will allow researchers to gauge how well the habitat protects against solar radiation, space debris and contamination.
BEAM is a 21st-century reincarnation of NASA’s TransHab, which never got beyond blueprints and ground mock-ups in the 1990s.
Hotel entrepreneur Robert Bigelow bought rights to TransHab, then persuaded NASA to host BEAM at the space station. Mr. Bigelow said the mission promises to “change the entire dynamic for human habitation.”
Keywords: Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, International Space Station
