With the mission to Mars drawing closer and space station costs high, scientists are working to create expandable space habitats that offer an alternative to the rigid metal structures seen on the International Space Station (ISS) and move towards flexible devices that can be sent into space deflate.
The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) being developed by Bigelow Aerospace aims to accomplish just this and is designed to take up only a small amount of space while deflated and expand to four times its size once in space. After inflation, the BEAM will add the space of around the size of a bedroom to the ISS.
Although Bigelow Aerospace is keeping quiet in regards to the proprietary material that is used to create the modules, they claim that it includes numerous layers of strong, Kevlar-like materials.
"It's a multiple-layered structure, and when something hits the first outer layer, it fractures and breaks up," said Robert Bigelow, founder and president of the company.
If all goes well with the BEAM, Bigelow hopes to continue playing a role in future space exploration devices.
"We would like to be part of the process of establishing a lunar station and other kinds of space outposts - maybe someday helping to support Mars ambitions," he said.
Bigelow's company will no doubt be able to provide help to the Mars mission, which is currently planned for the 2030s. In fact, NASA just tapped geoscientist Christopher House for the Mars habitability project, which seeks to determine the nature of Mars' landscape and its potential for habitability.
"My research has focused on the early Earth and what happened here billions of years ago," said House, a professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State University. "I've studied methane seeps and marine sediments and have investigated ancient Earth rocks for signatures of life. I would like to take those lessons learned and apply them to other parts of the solar system, and joining the NASA Mars rover project seemed like a great way to do this."
In addition to Bigelow Aerospace and their BEAM, other companies are making their way into the expandable space habitat industry, including NextSTEP, NASA's primary funding program for commercial industries.
