Thursday
Bob Bigelow's one third scale inflatable space station is in orbit after a launch from Russia. This is the first of several unmanned test articles which will lead to a full scale station by 2015. Even so, at 8 feet in diameter and 14 feet in length when inflated, this habitat is not exactly small.
You can read a bit more about it at CNN. I would also recommend checking space.com and the other usual suspects for more detailed accounts, something I am about to do myself.
How do inflatable structures fare vs. micrometeorites?
Posted by David Gillies at July 13, 2006 10:14 PM
How does kevlar fare vs bullets? Pretty good. These are not balloons per se, but a complex layered set of materials that have excellent stopping power, probably as good or better than anything on Space Station Alpha. They sort of unwind from a central core and then are stiffened by the pressure.
There is a sort of economy of scale for size in this as well. The larger the internal volume you have, the longer you have to fix things. it isn't like the movies. The air does not rush out all at once even if you do get something big enough to go all the way through rather than vaporize on an outer layer and got stopped by one of the following layers, which is what will happen for most typical microimpacts.
btw... I just discovered the other day that Kevlar was invented by a fellow CMU grad, a woman chemist who was, oh, 25 years or so before my time ;-)
Posted by Dale Amon at July 14, 2006 12:11 AM
Good news!
Congratualtions to all those involved in the project.
Posted by Paul Marks at July 14, 2006 12:34 PM
8 by 14? is 'not exactly small'?
Dosn't that violate the Geneva Conventions or prison regulations in western countries or something?
I would hate to see your definition of 'cramped'.
Call me when I can have separate rooms for bath and potty, as well as private bedrooms for the hot and cold running concubines.
Posted by tomWright at July 15, 2006 02:03 PM
