Exclusive :- Earth orbiting inflatable module in space

[shirish]

Hi all,
Thanks to a boost today from a Russian and Ukrainian rocket-for-hire company, a U.S. private space firm has sent a novel expandable module toward Earth orbit—and a step forward in providing commercial space habitats.

Find the whole story at Space.com

Some excerpts & observations :-

Bigelow Aerospace of North Las Vegas, Nevada is flying prototype hardware that the firm anticipates will advance habitable structures in space to carry out research and manufacturing, among other tasks.

The Genesis-1 module was lofted skyward atop a Dnepr booster under contract with ISC Kosmotras. The rocket—a converted Cold War SS-18 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile—roared out of its silo from the Yasny Launch Base, an active Russian strategic missile facility.

Robert Bigelow, head of Bigelow Aerospace has confirmed that the Genesis-1 spacecraft has successfully expanded. “We have also confirmed that all of the solar arrays have been deployed,†he noted.

At the firm’s mission control center in Las Vegas, Nevada, information has been acquired from Genesis-1. “The ISC Kosmotras Dnepr rocket has flawlessly delivered the Genesis-1 into the target orbit of 550 kilometers altitude at 64 degrees inclination,†Bigelow said.

An early look at the telemetry indicated that the module’s internal battery is at a full charge of 26 volts – indicating that the solar arrays were deployed.

There is the potential, Gold pointed out, for Genesis-1 to remain in orbit for years with the company's space engineers hoping to learn how the module's systems withstand the harsh space environment—including exposure to natural and human-made space debris, as well as radiation. Extensive testing of the expandable module that's fashioned out of advanced soft-goods material has been done both in the United States and in the Ukraine, he said.

The step-by-step increase in size, Gold said, not only will establish the technology but also help build the business case for the Earth orbiting modules. "You don't want to shift from first to fourth gear," he said, the idea being to build familiarity and confidence in experimentation, applications, and space commerce.

"From a technical perspective, we will be establishing the conceptual foundation that all future expandable systems will be built upon," Gold said. "You see a lot of Power Point slides and pretty pictures of inflatable habitats in the literature, but, the fact of the matter is...an expandable system has never been tested in an actual orbital environment. No real data currently exists, and hopefully, the Genesis-1 mission can help change this situation dramatically," he added.

In a statement from Robert Bigelow on the firm's website: "A free system called capitalism works very well on Earth, and there is nothing about microgravity that changes this. We need to encourage creativity, imagination, and innovation, in order to bring the benefits of space development to fruition, not just for the privileged few, but for all of humanity."

Now this looks to be on the road of success. Also one can look at this article which shows tht if competition is there then the space industry will innovate much more faster than it's doing today.

For once I would like to see something really positive happening in space