The idea sounds like the far-fetched dream of a mad aerospace engineer, but the plan is to make money off the venture and eventually form commercial facilities that could replace the aging international space station.
Space.com is saying Bigelow Aerospace and Axiom Space LLC plan to launch habitat modules into orbit in 2020. The private space stations could play host to a variety of occupants, from space tourists to scientists and astronauts from NASA and other space agencies.
Tenants would pay rent for the space facilities, and this could prove to be a boon for countries with smaller space agencies and would cut operating costs. It would be a great money saver for NASA, said Bigelow Aerospace founder and CEO Robert Bigelow on Wednesday at the 2016 International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS).
Fox News quoted Bigelow: “Hopefully, if we’re successful in the private-sector community, NASA’s going to save a boatload of money, on multiple locations [in orbit] — not just one — with more volume than they’ve ever had before. So, whether it’s Axiom or us or other people, that is the future.”
Bigelow Aerospace
Las Vegas, Nevada-based Bigelow Aerospace has already had great success with its modules that are launched in a compressed configuration and then inflate on reaching their destination. The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, uses key innovations in lightweight and compact materials, bypassing the use of rigid aluminum-walled structures.
On April 8, 2016, a SpaceX CRS-8 launch took the Dragon cargo vessel to the International Space Station where it docked on April 10. On April 16, British astronaut Tim Peake extracted BEAM from Dragon’s trunk using Canadarm2 and installed it on the aft port of the ISS’s Tranquility node. The BEAM will be monitored for two years.
But Bigelow is looking to launch something that will be much bigger than the BEAM. Called the B330, this module will offer 11,650 cubic feet of internal volume, versus the internal pressurized volume of 32,333 cubic feet for the entire 440-ton, $100 billion ISS.
Bigelow says his company is building two of the B330s and will have them ready by 2020 for launch. He envisions connecting multiple B330s in orbit to create large space stations, with each module capable of supporting six people.
Axiom Space LLC
Axiom Space LLC is headed up by former NASA ISS manager Mike Suffredini who co-founded the company with Kam Ghaffarian, the co-founder of SGT, Inc. Suffredini left NASA in 2015 after 10 years to team up with Ghaffarian in building a space module. The company has a vision that eventually space will be a regular part of our lives, with space tourism as common as going to the beach on vacation.
Axiom also plans to launch their 50,000-pound module into orbit in 2020, possibly aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket. If all goes according to plan, the Axiom module will dock with the ISS and stay connected to the orbiting space station until the end of its operational life, which is expected to end in 2024.
Regardless of which company succeeds in launching a space habitat into orbit first is really of no consequence. Instead, looking at the much bigger picture, we are now embarking on a great adventure that involves all of humanity. Just think about it, living in and visiting space will become a reality.
