Bigelow offers more than NASA for spaceship services....

[Dr Mordrid]

That's right kiddies: Bigelow Aerospace has offered $760 million USD to any company that can provide a spaceship with which to get to their space stations. NASA's COTS project offered to split $500 million between two companies to get one ship for ISS transport after the shuttle is gone and before Orion is ready, a 3-5 year gap.

The information was released in an exclusive interview with New Scientist magazine here.

CRIKEY, this sh*t's getting serious

Bigelow Aerospace to offer $760 million for spaceship

* 18:13 25 October 2007
* NewScientist.com news service

Bigelow Aerospace intends to spur development of a commercial space vehicle to take people into Earth orbit by offering to sign a contract worth $760 million with any company that can meet their criteria, company president Robert Bigelow says.

Speaking with New Scientist at the company's headquarters in Las Vegas, Nevada, Bigelow said the offer is meant to head off a crisis over the lack of transportation options available to get people to the large inflatable space stations it plans to launch by early 2010.

Bigelow has already successfully launched and deployed two test inflatable spacecraft. It hopes to rent out space on future stations to astronauts of some of the world's space agencies, as well as to companies that wish to carry out research or other activities in space.

The company plans to break ground in less than a year on a factory to mass-produce its inflatable space stations, but they are worried that without an affordable commercial crew launch vehicle, none of its potential customers will be able to pay to get to these space stations, Bigelow said.

"We could find ourselves with a nice new facility, a number of modules on the floor ready to launch, and nowhere in sight is an affordable or even existing transportation vehicle – a capsule and a lifting vehicle that make economic sense," he said.
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[Tjalfe]

how well will an inflatable space station, basically a balloon, handle space junk or other puncture hazards?

[Dr Mordrid]

They're not just a balloon, they're 'expandables'.

Basically they have solid end panels with airlocks connected by a box frame type structure making up the core. The expandable walls are 16-20 inches thick with several heavy pressure bladders, dozens of layers of Kevlar and other strong fibers, several layers of high density foam plus a gelled water blanket for radiation shielding.

NASA tested them for impacts in their hypersonic gun facility by firing 1" steel balls at them. The aluminum structures used for ISS modules shredded, but the Bigelow modules didn't lose any air whatsoever and the steel balls only penetrated a few inches. They never got close to the pressure bladders.

As they say; the proof is in the pudding. Bigelow has two testbed modules, Genesis I and Genesis II, in polar orbit with Genesis I being up since July 12, 2006 and Genesis II since June 28, 2007. Neither has leaked a bit and the outer layers are handling the space environment better than expected.

Yeah, I think they're strong enough

First station to be built (labeled; OME = orbital maneuvering engine. Sundancer goes up in late 2009/early 2010)


Power bus and station hub (their stations will be able to boost themselves, no shuttle needed)


Box core (stowage or other rooms up and down. Water, power etc. are inside the core beams (patented system))


Basic wall structure (more layers and the water radiation shield added since this image)

[Nowhere]

Anything in Bigelow requirements stopping Russians from taking the deal? How much Soyuz/Progress launch costs these days, 50 million USD?

[Dr Mordrid]

Soyuz only carries 2 passengers + a pilot and that isn't withing Bigelows previously stated needs. They have said in the past they need at least a 5-7 passenger ship. The projects that meet that requirement are SpaceX's Dragon (7), Benson's Dream Chaser (6) and, if they bring it out oif mothballs, Lockheed's CTV (8).

[Nowhere]

On one hand they could overestimate their initiall needs (later, sure, 5-7 passenger ship would be nice, I imagine)...but on the other, if Sundancer goes up in 2 years, do you think its realistic to have passenger ship ready by then (and I don't mean "we just had our first succesfull launch") vs. "da ( ), it only carries 2 passengers, but it's reliable and proven"?

[Dr Mordrid]

Sundancer's due for late 2009/early 2010 so it could be that they need >2 for station prep.

Raw station assembly (hub to modules) is presumed to be automated. The station equipment; wall dividers, electronics, laptops, experiment bays, living quarters etc. will be stowed in the module cores then after the modules are assembled & expanded the crew goes in and takes care of the interior fittings.

With that much space fitting could take weeks and need a substantial crew.

Besides that in order for the economics to work they'll need at least 4-5 passengers per launch.