Posted on 02/26/2007 5:01:49 AM PST by saganite
Even as Bigelow Aerospace gears up for launching its second prototype space station into orbit, the company has set its sights on something much, much bigger: a project to assemble full-blown space villages at a work site between Earth and the moon, then drop them to the lunar surface, ready for immediate move-in.
In an exclusive interview this week, Las Vegas billionaire Robert Bigelow confirmed that his company has been talking about the concept with NASA – and that the first earthly tests of the techniques involved would take place later this year. The scenario he sketched out would essentially make Bigelow a general contractor for the final frontier.
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Getting all that right is "Job One," Bigelow told me. But by 2012, the focus could start shifting from low Earth orbit, or LEO, farther out into space. One of the key places in Bigelow's plan is a point about 200,000 miles (323,000 kilometers) out from Earth in the moon's direction, where the pulls of terrestrial and lunar gravity balance each other.
Bigelow would turn that region of space, called L1, into a construction zone. Inflatable modules would be linked up with propulsion/power systems and support structures, and then the completed base would be lowered down to the moon's surface, all in one piece.
Once the moon base has been set down, dirt would be piled on top, using a technique that Bigelow plans to start testing later this year at his Las Vegas headquarters. The moon dirt, more technically known as regolith, would serve to shield the base's occupants from the harsh radiation hitting the lunar surface.
(Excerpt) Read more at cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com ...
ping
His plans are entirely logical and mirror ideas around since I was a kid reading science fiction. In fact, his plans are not so much science as advanced engineering projects.
Bigelow has it's first module in orbit and it has far exceeded expectations. He licensed NASA research on these modules because NASA lost funding for the program so his work is a continuation of a NASA program and some of the NASA scientists and engineers followed the project over to Bigelow. His module has been such a success that he's in talks with the makers of the Atlas 5 rocket to develop a man rated version of that rocket. All together, this is a program that is taken very seriously and of all the privately funded space research going on now he is head and shoulders above the rest and that includes Branson and his space tourism business.
Absolutely it's feasible. Right now he's relying on Russian rockets and I'm holding my breath the April launch goes OK. He had a contract with one of the private launch vehicle developers in the US but they haven't gotten anything off the ground yet. He's already outgrown that though and the big boys like Lockheeed Martin and Boeing are taking him seriously.
The near future of space travel is suborbital and low orbit.
The problem is and always has been boosters.
I'm sure it's as close to economic viability as any other potential motive.
Helium 3 is worthless moon dust until someone produces a viable Nuclear Fusion prototype. That's been 20 years in the future for as long as I've been alive (quite a bit longer than 20 years)
Imagine this - Muslims stay on Earth and worship the moon god, while Americans actually move to the Moon!
Screw the Moon. L1 should be the goal in and of itself. From L1, you can launch to anywhere in the solar system at essentially zero cost.
Capture a near earth asteroid using ion engines and park it in L1. Use it as an anchor point for an elevator. Put four more in the other points. L2 would be perfect for Hubble 2 with communications relayed through L4 or L5. Put five more rocks in geosynchronous orbit around Earth 72 degrees apart with the first above Chimborazo. Don't forget the Earth Sun L points. They also offer opportunities.
I think L1 might be contested. It's a very valuable piece of real estate. Do you know how large that region is? Will it accomodate multiple widely spaced habitats?
How big is his bank account?
So . . . do you think they will pry loose the anti-grav craft for such?
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