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Posted on 07/06/2004 9:11:42 PM PDT by anymouse
China is eyeing participation in new privately funded U.S. space ventures, such as the Bigelow Aerospace inflatable habitat for biotech or other space-business endeavors.
A Chinese role in these ventures could challenge the U.S. government to focus more attention on space cooperation with China. This is especially so, since the U.S. State Dept. would have to rule on such commercial cooperation.
Bigelow is receiving substantial technical assistance from the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC), which developed the original TransHab inflatable concept considered earlier for use on the International Space Station (AW&ST Dec. 8, 1997, p. 39).
Bigelow has taken over part of the TransHab technology under Space Act and other agreements with NASA, and space agency managers speak highly of the Bigelow. As part of these activities, Bigelow and NASA have just completed a second exclusive licensing agreement--this one for debris shield-related technology to be transferred from JSC to the company.
The Bigelow project involves more than two dozen established aerospace subcontractors and nearly 60 full-time Bigelow employees.
The team is working in 120,000 sq. ft. of floor space on a 50-acre site in North Las Vegas, Nev. These efforts have gone virtually unnoticed by the broader aerospace community. The company is preparing to add an additional 40,000 sq. ft. of space and several additional subcontractors.
It is well into the development of 25% and 45% scale inflatable flight test modules for a series of four privately funded unmanned orbital test flights during 2005-07. It has already developed substantial full- and reduced-scale inflatable ground test hardware.
THE ORBITAL demonstrations and ground test hardware are aimed toward the launch of a man-tended commercial "Nautilus" module between 2008 and 2010. The watermelon-shaped Nautilus would weigh 20-25 tons and, once inflated in orbit, measure 45 X 22 ft. with 330 cu. meters of volume. This is larger than the 25 X 27-ft. tractor-tire shaped TransHab and substantially bigger than any individual ISS module.
China Great Wall Industries managers recently visited Bigelow facilities in Nevada. They sounded out the company on the possible launch of Bigelow test or operational modules on Long March boosters or the in-orbit support of Nautilus by Shenzhou Chinese manned spacecraft.
The Chinese are also planning to develop their own small space station, which could theoretically provide orbital infrastructure for the docking of a Nautilus inflatable.
"We talked to the Chinese on a confidential basis, and they indicated they are thinking seriously of opening their program to space commercialization," said Robert T. Bigelow, president and founder of the company.
Bigelow is trying to foster a man-tended biotechnology research user base for the module as its early foundation, said the company's general counsel, Michael Gold. A reduction in NASA microgravity materials and biotechnology research on the ISS will actually help its commercial marketing prospects, the company believes.
Tourism could be another user area downstream, but Bigelow says it would not be the initial business base for Nautilus.
Inflatable technologies--or "expandables" as Bigelow prefers to call them--are increasingly popular, and NASA and the Defense Dept. are also potential customers for Nautilus research. As envisioned by NASA for the TransHab concept, Bigelow engineers believe the Nautilus could also be a proof-of-concept development for similar materials technologies and inflatables as habitats on the Moon as part of the new U.S. lunar/Mars manned exploration initiative.
An entrepreneur who made his fortune as the founder of Budget Suites of America, along with other real estate deals, Bigelow is personally financing the module development, costing several tens of millions of dollars. He has not had detailed discussions with the Chinese, and has talked more with the Russians about potential Soyuz in-orbit and launch support. But he also said there's an "opportunity for America" in cooperating with the Chinese space program, and he disagrees with what he regards as the current negative U.S. policy toward such cooperation.
"It may be up to the American private sector to make these overtures to China where our State Dept. finds it so difficult to be adept," he says.
Bigelow's activities are among several privately financed space endeavors blossoming in the Southern California/Las Vegas area. Other examples are the Burt Rutan SpaceShipOne and XCOR suborbital programs and the SpaceX low-cost unmanned launcher project. SpaceX is under contract to Bigelow for the launch of the first "Genesis" test module on a SpaceX Falcon V booster in November 2005.
BIGELOW ALSO HAS signed a nontechnical framework agreement with the Kosmotras Russian-Ukrainian booster venture for the launch in 2006 of a second Genesis on a "Dneper" commercial launch version of the SS-18 ballistic missile. A formal contract for that launch is awaiting approval of a Technical Assistance Agreement by the U.S. State Dept.
Bigelow's in-orbit test plan involves:
* Two Genesis flights. The 2005 and 2006 Genesis payloads would each be 3,000-lb. units measuring 15 X 6.2 ft. before inflation. Cameras and telemetry would observe inflation to double that size. The Genesis flights would demonstrate inflation technology, pressure integrity and debris-shield deployment.
* Two "Guardian" flights. Also set for launch on the Dneper, these missions--planned for April and August 2007--would be 45% scale modules carrying critical life-support system test hardware.
* Nautilus. Since the operational payload would weigh up to 50,000 lb. including docking interfaces, a Russian Proton, Chinese heavy Long March or U.S. heavy launcher would have to be used.
Bigelow has followed up with NASA on a multilayer inflatable design several inches thick that can take orbital debris hits. The company has conducted 60-70 of its own ballistic impact tests to advance beyond NASA's inflatable tests in the mid-1990s.
NASA's original design had its systems and water-based radiation-protected habitation areas as a central core, similar to the cardboard center of a roll of paper towels. It would have had three redundant internal pressure bladders. Kevlar or Vectran (similar to Kevlar) would have acted as bladder restraint materials under four Nextel foam debris protection layers.
Some similar but lo wer cost materials, such as a carbon-fiber composite for debris protection, are being used in Nautilus. And Bigelow also has a different strap-matrix design for air bladder restraint, in contrast to NASA's "constant-weave" design. But the big difference is an open design without such a large central core.
"Instead of TransHab's vertical layer cake, I turned the Nautilus design sideways so you do not have such short line-of-sight distances inside," Bigelow says. Nautilus will use wall-mounted water blankets each 2.5 in. thick for radiation protection.
The company, in consultation with the Johnson Space Center engineers, will conduct key Genesis launch-related vibration tests by the fall. Those trials will likely be done in a specialized facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. But Wylie Laboratories is another possibility for the tests.
?.....Promises,.......No 'WMD'?
The country that controls space, is the super power of the future.
Space ping
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Nice to see that "China Great WAL-MART Industries" are participating in more than one-way trade.
Hope this gas-bag space vehicle isn't "expendable!"
Can't wait to see the movie,......"20,001: A Space Odessa"
Use them to gather, mine, refine metals and materials for the manufacter of more permanent space stations, without lifting heavy loads out of earth's gravity..
They could also be used as inflatable forms for "casting" large concrete type structures..
All the building materials we need are already in space..
Thanks for the ping!
Space Ping! This is the Space Ping List! Let me know if you want on or off this list!
That is why we need to control space.
If Las Vegas isn't interested in investors, we're not interested in Las Vegas. He can keep his stuff and his gov't connections.
Thank you so much for all the information!
You are missing the point. The technology was developed and paid for by our tax dollars and Bigelow is potentially going to trade it away to the ChiComms.
When Loral and Hughes did this under the Clinton Administration, FReepers were calling them traitors. Do we need some consistency?
Thanks for your concern.
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