Ben Preiss
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A 63-year-old American billionaire has plans to launch an inflatable private space station that doubles as a hotel. Bigelow Aerospace is working on “an inflatable space station, to be precise a massive bouncy castle meant to expand when it gets into orbit,” Wired magazine said. “It will be the first privately owned destination in space, and Bigelow proposes to rent it out as an orbital research lab, a training facility, or even a tourist hotel.” Before you dismiss Robert T. Bigelow as another super rich guy that’s watched too many Star Trek episodes, know that he has two scale prototypes circling the earth right now. Genesis I and II were launched in the last 16 months from Russia, and photos taken from them can be viewed at the Bigelow Aerospace website.  The Genesis prototypes are one-third-size models of the inflata-structures Bigelow plans to launch eventually. Their outer shells are made of a superstrong Kevlar-like fabric that rolls up tightly for transit and then expands to full size in orbit. The system offers a crucial advantage over conventional metal spacecraft: Its smaller mass and weight make it cheaper to build and launch.
These proof-of-concept test models aren't just idly traipsing through space. Dozens of cameras mounted on the pods take regular photos of Earth from 350 miles up; you can check them out on the company Web site. Genesis II also sports a projection system that currently displays, on the outside of the craft, images of BA staffers; later, Bigelow intends to sell ads to go on these exterior walls. Inside the vessels, a menagerie of ants, cockroaches, and scorpions are being studied for their responses to microgravity. There's even an onboard bingo game involving a system that randomly selects numbered balls floating around in a box. Fans can play over the Internet. Also drifting about: hundreds of photos, figurines, ornaments, mechanical pencils, Ping-Pong balls, and other keepsakes. Before the launch, the public was invited to put such personal trinkets aboard for $295 a pop.
(wired)References: bigelowaerospace, wired Filed In: |
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