Thursday, January 17, 2002 Cover story: The new space raceA Las Vegas firm is dueling with NASA over commercializing space
BY GEORGE KNAPP
Sometime soon, perhaps by the year 2015, a line of adventurous, well-heeled tourists will form at a gangplank that leads to a resuable rocket. They will have ponied up $750,000 apiece for the privilege of enjoying amenities comparable to a first-class cruise ship, except this particular ship will spend a week traveling in a vast figure-eight trajectory around the earth and the moon. Whle in space, some of the tourists might test their skills by firing laser guns at high-tech "skeet," or they could use more powerful instrumentation to create an unforgettable light show while passing the dark side of the moon. (Cue the Pink Floyd CD.) They probably will want to dial up the folks back home via a satellite videophone, just to rub it in. Or they may choose to zoom in on the old neighborhood through the lenses of a space telescope. More than a few of them are likely to strip off their space suits to test the outer limits of kinky sex in the miracle of microgravity. The Mile High Club will never be the same. There are no significant scientific or technological barriers to prevent such a journey, experts say. According to one ambitous Las Vegas businessman, the only real impediments are those created by government bureaucrats.
Who is Mr. Big? Robert Bigelow's name has never appeared on those periodic lists of the richest Nevadans, but it isn't because he lacks the ducats. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Las Vegas lodging tycoon enjoys a personal net worth in the $900 million range, which means he is far wealthier than, say, hotel bigwigs Steve Wynn and Bill Bennett. Unlike those other guys, Bigelow has never had to release details about his fortune. His ridiculously successful Budget Suites of America chain, which has 6,500 units in Las Vegas alone (more rooms than the MGM Grand), is not a publicly traded company. Bigelow owns the whole shebang--every couch, hideaway bed and kitchenette. He not only owns them--another of his companies built them. Biglow reluctantly spilled the beans about his net worth because he wanted to gain credibility within the aerospace community for his seemingly far-fetched plan to build the first hotel in space. He has committed a staggering $500 million to the project. Yet he knows that even if his scientific team succeeds in designing a revolutionary type of space habitat, he may never get a chance to launch it into the wild blue yonder. "You could get far better odds at any craps table in Las Vegas," he concedes. "If this was a publicly traded company, there is no way I could get away with gambling half a billion dollars on something that is a longshot to ever break even." There have been previous news items about Bigelow's sky-high gambit, but for the most part those other accounts have focused primarily on the novelty of vacations in space. In reality, the full scope of his proposal is far more significant and may hold the key to the ultimate exploration and commercialization of space. "The idea of a hotel in space is sexy," Bigelow says. "It grabs people's attention and gets them thinking. But really, it's only a starting point, a small part of what we hope to achieve."
Warp Drive and Skywalker Way The dream has progressed far beyond the blueprint stage. A 50-acre chunk of land in North Las Vegas offers proof positive. Bigelow's "space campus" is enclosed by a tall and imposing wrought-iron fence. A second, interior fence topped with razor wire shadows the first. And a disciplined team of camouflage-clad security personnel--all ex-military--patrols the site round-the-clock. It's as if Area 51 had been moved to Cheyenne Avenue. A cavernous hangar-like building is already in place, all 40,000 square feet of it, built by Bigelow's construction crew. It sits about 100 yards from the intersection of the aptly named Warp Drive and Skywalker Way, street names that won't appear on any North Las Vegas map. Four other equally massive structures will be going up soon. And another 80,000-square-foot behemoth will be built underground. Huge earthmovers have already gouged the requisite hole. It is there, in the security of a buried enclave, that Bigelow will test and store his ultimate creation. Initially, Bigelow wanted to invest in the production of launch vehicles that would carry people and equipment into space. But he quickly realized there were already too many other firms competing for that very limited market. Instead, his millions are being used to create a sturdy, inexpensive space habitat, a module that would serve as the central building block for future space stations, space labs and space hotels. More than 40 world-class scientists, engineers and technicians are already on the payroll. Their goal is the design and production of living quarters that would dramatically alter the the cost of exploiting the true potential of space. "NASA figured it would spend about a billion dollars to build its module. If it costs me half a billion to do the same, then I've failed completely," Bigelow says. "I can't be satisfied with cutting the cost in half. We are looking for a complete breathrough, a way to change the whole equation of going into space. Hopefully, one of our modules can be built for $50 million."
Cashing in on space Two things (other than the government) have thus far prevented private interests from commercializing space: the high cost of getting there and the difficulty of staying there. If Bigelow's module can radically affect half of that problem, the other part might take care of itself. And if that happens, the potential benefits from having a permanent presence in space are mind-boggling. Just in the area of materials science, the potential of manufacturing new materials in space could transform the world economy. Simply put, materials can be created in the microgravity of space that cannot be manufactured on Earth. An example is zeolite crystals. These rock-hard but spongelike crystals are vital to the production of gasoline, but their production on Earth is limited. In space, much larger zeolites can be grown. This could not only mean the production of more gasoline per barrel of oil, but could lead to breakthroughs in the use of clean, plentiful hydrogen as the ultmate fuel of the future. An optical fiber known as ZBLAN has the potential to carry 100 times more data than today's silica-based fiber optics. This too carries great implications, not only for data and power transmission, but for lasers and medical technologies. It is in the area of medicine that space's greatest potential may lie. The crystals that can be grown only in space can radically improve X-ray analysis. They have already led to the development of treatments that are being tested in clinical trials and could result in breakthroughs in dealing with several types of cancer, AIDS and arthritis. According to NASA, such reasearch has the potential to greatly improve the lives of more than a billion people who suffer with these and other diseases. To realize the potential, though, people need to be able to stay in space for extended periods. "If we can get the cost down and allow governments or companies to own or lease their own space stations, there is no telling where it could lead," Bigelow says. "The cures for cancer or muscular dystrophy could be there, waiting for us to find them. We could manufacture glass that would be stronger than titanium. In entertainment, we could create location settings that every movie studio, every TV network would want. We have only a tiny sniff of what might be possible to accomplish in microgravity."
A 22,000 mph bullet In a nondescript office building just west of the Las Vegas Strip are models and computer renderings of Bigelow's module. What he is building is a cousin to NASA's now-defunct TransHab program. At one point, NASA asked Bigelow Aerospace to serve as the centerpoint of a high-powered consortium, one that included industrial giants Boeing and Mitsubishi, in designing a new habitation module. But Boeing and Mitsubishi wouldn't carry on unless they received government money, or at least some sort of guarantee. When NASA wouldn''t give them either, they dropped out, and Bigelow decided to go it alone, using his own money. As designed, Bigelow's module could be stored in the cargo hold of a reusable rocket or space shuttle. Once in orbit, it would be inflated to its full size. The interior would contain 2 1/2 times the living space of NASA's planned (but canceled) billion-dollar module, which means just two or three modules would be far roomier and considerably cheaper than what has been installed as part of the much-troubled International Space Station. "We could have 1,200 cubic meters of habitation in space, using just seven or eight launches," Bigelow says. "It took NASA 45 launches to put 1,100 cubic meters up there." They might be cheaper and roomier, but would they be safe? In space, even a loose paint chip, traveling at tremendous speed, can cut through a hull like a butcher knife through cheese. Bigelow's team may have an answer to that as well. Using something known as a hypervelocity gas gun, they've been firing projectiles into assorted test hulls. The projectiles are fired at speeds of up to 22,000 mph, more than three times the speed of a bullet from a deer rifle. The metal hull in use by NASA doesn't fare well under such tests. Tiny projecticles rip right through it. But Bigelow's team has developed its own hull, using a combination of high-tech fibers and metals. Their hull will not only withstand hypervelocity projectiles, but would provide better protection against space radiation. Once his manufacturing plant is ready to go, Bigelow figures he can have a finished module, ready for launch, by the summer of 2003. But still he worries it will never get off the ground. The impediment can b summed up in four initials: NASA.
NASA: No Access to Space for Americans Millions of Americans still think fondly of NASA. We remember The Right Stuff era, the dashing astronauts who captured our hearts and kindled our imaginations, and the moon missions that signaled America's victory in the space race over the hated Russians. Those heady times are long gone. We haven't been back to the moon in 30 years. NASA's record in sending probes to Mars is a sad joke. NASA's contribution to the International Space Station (ISS) is billions of dollars over budget, and yet the ISS is still more of a halfhearted dream than a fully functioning outpost. NASA is a mess. "NASA should stand for No Access to Space for Americans," according to Bigelow. "They own everything, the structures, the launch vehicles. And they patent everything so that no one else can use any of it without NASA's permission, which they rarely give. NASA is a jealous guardian of access to space. Look at the fit they threw about Dennis Tito paying the Russians $20 million to take a ride on Soyuz. We almost need to dissolve the whole agency and start over." Bigelow is far from alone in his criticism of NASA. Basically, every other private entity that has dared to dream of a commercial operation in space has concluded that NASA seems unwilling to surrender its monopoly on the solar system. Like Bigelow, another wealthy businessman named Andrew Beal dreamed of getting a jump on space exploration. Beal invested millions in his plan to build a large, low-cost, reusable launch vehicle that would dramatically lower the cost of getting people and stuff into space. But NASA went into competition against him. It convinced Congress to authorize $10 billion in start-up funds for a new NASA launcher. Beal folded his tent, knowing he couldn't possibly compete at that level. (A rival launcher, the VentureStar or X-33, to be built by Lockheed, has also been canceled.) In an open letter to the aerospace community, a bitter Beal argued that the $10 billion will be wasted because there is no technological barrier that needs to be overcome. Private companies could do the same job at a fraction of the cost, but not if they have to compete directly against the government. "Asking NASA to develop low-cost space access is like asking Amtrak to develop new low-cost locomotives or the U.S. Postal Service to develop new, low-cost electronic mail systems," Beal lamented. "NASA has tilted the field against private efforts. We should be thankful Congress never funded NASA to develop the automobile. If it had, I suspect the use of these dangerous vehicles would be restricted to highly trained 'autonauts.'" Pat Dasch, president of the National Space Society, agrees that "NASA is not creating an environment to allow commercial business in space." Dasch says NASA still sees itself as a commercial player, which would seem contrary to the role of a government agency. Bigelow has learned these lessons the hard way. Bigelow Aerospace made a last-ditch effort to obtain a smidgen of hope that its module would ever be allowed into space. NASA's offer was this: Although Bigelow would fund the entire project, NASA would retain control of 75 percent of the space in any of his modules. What's more, NASA declared, Bigelow would be prohibited from using his remaining 25 percent to house any humans whatsoever. Does this sound like an agency that wants to help commercialize space? Bigelow knows he can't count on NASA to launch his projects, but what about foreign launchers such as the French or Russians? Access to those is also controlled by the U.S. government. Anything that is launched into space is now considered to be "a satellite" and is stricly controlled by the State Department, with input from NASA and the Defense Department. If NASA doesn't want you to launch, you won't launch. Exporting a "satellite" to be launched in a foreign country would be tantamount to treason. "NASA is a prime example of a self-serving government pork barrel, and is little more than a jobs program where the agenda seems to be, `Don't make waves, keep your head down and try to spend more money than in the previous year,'" Bigelow alleges. "There are pharmaceutical companies that want to develop miracle drugs in their own space stations, but NASA will never allow it because that would take business sway from the ISS. I've told them this to their face. So have a lot of other people."
The future Despite the obstacles, Bigelow Aerospace is plugging along and plans to be ready for the launch of its first module in about 18 months. Already it is the first company in history to petition the government for permission to put its own space station in orbit. A high-powered Washington law firm has been hired to help guide the application through the government maze, but it could take years to process the paperwork. The feds don't even have the forms written yet. Even though the Bush administration has yet to develop even a semblance of an overall space policy (other than its desire to militarize space), there is talk in Washington of a NASA housecleaning and for sweeping changes in laws governing access to space. If that happens, Bigelow might get permission after all to mass produce his space modules, habitats that he says could also be used for deep space missions, such as a manned journey to Mars. History could be written at that 50-acre factory in North Las Vegas, if everything falls into place. Bigelow, who is better known for his weekly rental units and his oft-publicized interest in UFOs and the paranormal, could have his name mentioned in the same breath with some of space pioneers of the past. Bigelow hinted that he might want to book his own space vacation. "I've thought a lot about going up there myself, and I can't wait," he confides. "But don't tell my wife." |
