Building
on lessons they continue to learn from their two space modules still operating
in low Earth orbit, the team at Bigelow Aerospace of North Las Vegas, Nev., is
accelerating its push to get a habitable version launched.
The
initial focus of that work is Sundancer, a larger version of the subscale Genesis 1
and Genesis 2 spacecraft now in orbit. Sundancer will
have 175 cubic meters of habitable space and come fully equipped with life
support systems, attitude control, on-orbit maneuvering systems, the ability to reboost itself and,
at the end of its life, the ability to conduct a controlled deorbit.
It would support a crew of up to three individuals for varying mission
durations and eventually provide the backbone for the first commercial space
station.
"We're
trying to offer to folks, for multiple kinds of uses, a reliable environment
that can be used for varying types of purposes. So we're kind of the
wholesalers of space," Bigelow Aerospace President Robert Bigelow said
July 30 in an exclusive interview with Space News.
"This
is a little bit like 'if you build it, they will come,'" Bigelow said. And
they are coming. During the course of the next three months, prospective users
from the biotech, pharmaceutical and medical research fields are all slated to
visit the company's
Drawing
on the cash generated by other companies in his large suite of enterprises ?
such as his hotel and real estate businesses ? Bigelow said he had put $150
million into Bigelow Aerospace as of April. In 1999, the entrepreneurial
Bigelow said he was prepared to spend $500 million by 2015. That remains a
valid number, he said July 30.
Bigelow
Aerospace announced in May it had inked a nearly $5 million contract with Orion
Propulsion Inc. of Huntsville, Ala., to supply the attitude control system for
the forward end of Sundancer. Also that same month,
the company announced that Aerojet-General Corp. of
In addition,
Bigelow said the firm's work on life support gear is very encouraging.
"The testing already indicates we're definitely on the right track,"
he said.
Sundancer is intended to be a progressive step toward the company's
planned BA-330 orbital habitat, which it intends to make its standard for the
future. The "330" denotes the cubic meters of that module's internal
volume (11653.8 cubic feet).
The
first Bigelow Aerospace space complex would comprise two Sundancer-class
modules, a docking node and propulsion bus combination, as well as a single
BA-330, Bigelow said.
The
company already has expanded its sprawling complex of buildings and test
facilities. Work on a new 175,800-square foot (16,335-square meter)
structure ? building A3 ? already is under way and scheduled to be completed by
December 2009. Adjacent to the site is a new nearly 4.9-acre (2-hectare)
parking lot.
Bigelow
said the new facilities are needed to set up an assembly line for producing
large space modules and associated propulsion buses and docking nodes. "Our
ambition and goal for this new building is to be able to handle the fabrication
of two full standards per year and one, possibly two, propulsion buses and
docking nodes per year," Bigelow said.
Follow-on
facility
The erection of building A3, and the lessons learned in its creation,
are expected to serve as a template for a follow-on facility, perhaps
sited in a location like
"In
some ways we would prefer being close to our launch facilities. But there could
be various ways to make it so attractive that locating away from those launch
facilities is advantageous to go ahead and pay for shipping everything
else," Bigelow said.
"We're
not ready to do this next week. But we know that it's coming," Bigelow
continued, suggesting that such a plant might offer 484,000 square feet (45,000
square meters) of work space. "The quantity of spacecraft we can produce
is hugely a function of how much room ? we have to work in."
Bigelow
said he and his team plan to have two Sundancer
modules flight-ready by the end of 2011, as well as a docking node and
propulsion bus system. By the end of 2012, the firm plans to have its first
full BA-300 standard vessel ready for flight as well. "That's regardless
of whatever happens transportation-wise," he added, referring to the
company's ongoing search for a suitable launcher to get its hardware into
orbit.
The plan
is to have at least six launches in one year. "When we start to rock and
roll, we need to really move out," Bigelow explained. The intent of the
company is to bundle the purchasing of six launchers, both medium-lifters and a
heavy-lifter, to loft all elements of their first commercial space complex,
including crew and cargo.
Also
under way is expansion of a global network of ground stations. Four nodes are
now in operation monitoring the Genesis 1 and Genesis
2. With the prospect that human occupation of the first private space
complex is possible within five years, perhaps as many as 10 ground stations
are being considered, Bigelow said.
The
Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 modules were placed into orbit July 12, 2006, and June
28, 2007, respectively, via Dnepr boosters from the ISC Kosmotras
Yasny Cosmodrome, located
in the
While
enthusiastic about his space module work, boosting his space venture into orbit
remains a wearisome matter, Bigelow said. What he wants to avoid is devoting
money to fighting a two-front war, he said. That is, spending his resources on
destination and devoting capital to transportation. "If we don't do that,
we're going to be OK."
What
bothers Bigelow about boosters is, "If we're going to put our clients on
boosters, I want to damn well be sure that there's significant amount of
seconds on testing of a motor configuration," he said.
"I
applaud the efforts of Lockheed Martin ? and the efforts of [Space Exploration
Technologies Corp.]," he added, in terms of
"The
crew transportation issue is certainly challenging, and it keeps me up at night
more often than my infant son ? and that's saying something," said Mike
Gold, director of Bigelow Aerospace's
"We
have been and are in discussions with a number of entities, old and new, large
and small, about crew transportation. We're looking at a variety of ideas from
traditional to innovative, and while certainly all of our options are still
open, some progress has been made," Gold told Space News in an Aug. 1
e-mail.
Gold said that, ideally, the success of Genesis 1 and 2, the ongoing construction of Sundancer, coupled with the overall financial and technological commitment Bigelow Aerospace has made to expandable space habitats "will help act as an incentive toward the development of affordable and reliable low Earth orbit crew transportation systems."
