AT 73 metres long and 420 tonnes, the International Space Station is the biggest artificial object in space. And it is growing: its 15 existing modules are due to be joined by five more before the decade is out. On April 8th, if all goes according to plan, a rocket will lift off from Cape Canaveral in Florida carrying the first of these new additions. But it is no ordinary module.
The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM—illustrated above) is the first bit of the ISS created entirely at the initiative of a private company. Bigelow Aerospace, its manufacturer, is an American space firm set up in 1999 by Robert Bigelow, a businessman who made his money in the hotel trade. And unlike the rest of the ISS, which is essentially a series of space-going aluminium cans, the BEAM is made from cloth. It is folded up and stowed for the journey into orbit, much like a tent, and then inflated to its full size after being attached to the station.
An inflatable space station might sound a bit mad (perhaps for that reason, Bigelow Aerospace prefers the word “expandable”). But many space cadets are fans of the idea. In the 1950s Wernher von Braun, a Nazi rocket prodigy poached by the Americans after the second world war, described a space station 75 metres across with room for 80 people, made of reinforced, inflatable rubber tubes. In the 1960s, with the space race in...Continue reading
Source: Science and technology http://ift.tt/23l4gcY
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