While its Genesis 1 expandable module
circles the Earth, Bigelow Aerospace of North
Las Vegas, Nev., is preparing a follow-on inflatable spacecraft
for launch and getting ready to unveil its long-term business
plan for space habitats.
As an entrepreneurial space
development company, Bigelow
Aerospace has as its primary focus the development of habitable complexes
for a multitude of space users.
The firm's first foothold in Earth
orbit was the Genesis
1 module, which launched July 12, 2006, atop a Dnepr booster
under contract with ISC Kosmotras, a Russian and Ukrainian rocket-for-hire
company. The booster -- a silo-launched converted Cold War SS-18 ICBM -- roared
skyward from the Yasny Launch Base, an active Russian strategic missile
facility.
After reaching orbit, Genesis 1 expanded from a diameter of about five feet (1.5 meters) to a configuration that is now more
than eight feet (2.44 meters) across. In its pressurized, fully expanded status, the module yields 406
cubic feet (11.5 cubic meters) of usable volume and is energized by eight solar
arrays -- four on each end of the structure.
Genesis 1 remains in excellent
shape, along with healthy avionics and is exhibiting good thermal conditions as
it orbits Earth, said Robert Bigelow, founder and president of Bigelow
Aerospace, as well as owner of the Budget Suites of America Hotel Chain, among
other enterprises.
Last December, Genesis 1 took a
major radiation hit from a solar storm. "It knocked us for a loop ... it hit
us pretty hard. Our mission control operators [in Las Vegas] had to redo and reboot the
complete system," Bigelow told Space News in a March 15 telephone
interview. "We were one fault away from the spacecraft being dead had we not
succeeded in rebooting all the systems."
Bigelow's next space module, Genesis
2, is now being prepped for shipment to Russia. It is scheduled to be launched via a Dnepr rocket within
the first quarter of this year, said Mike Gold, corporate counsel for Bigelow
Aerospace in Washington.
"Certainly, Genesis 1 has prepared
us for the Genesis 2 mission, both in terms of experience with the hardware and
experience with operating the systems. The true value of Genesis 1 is occurring
now and that is proving its durability and validity over a period of time. It
has both exceeded our expectations and resulted in accelerating our schedule,"
Gold said in a March 13 interview.
Genesis 2 will carry several new
systems -- such as reaction wheels for attitude control as well as a
distributed, multi-tank inflation system -- an improvement on the single-tank
design of Genesis 1.
"By using multiple tanks, the
reliability of the inflation process is increased and allows for discrete gas
control. This is the next evolutionary step toward maintaining the multiple gas
supplies needed for our future man-tended vehicles," Eric Haakonstad, program manager for
Bigelow Aerospace, says on the company's Web site: www.bigelowaerospace.com.
Genesis 2 also sports a significant
avionics enhancement with much more redundancy, Bigelow said. Genesis 2 will carry 22 cameras, nearly
double the number on board Genesis 1. There also will
be two exterior projection systems designed to
demonstrate the casting of messages onto the
spacecraft's exterior "for ad purposes or just for fun," Bigelow said.
Additionally, the Genesis 2 mission
includes a "Fly Your Stuff" program whereby customers for a fee can see their
own objects floating in microgravity inside the module. An experimental "Space
Bingo" project is also to be conducted utilizing Genesis 2.
New ground control stations also are
being readied for Genesis 2 in Alaska and Hawaii. The new
facilities will augment the central mission
control center in Las Vegas, and will make it possible to communicate with
Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 for about 5 hours a day, Bigelow said. "We've increased the
ground control staff ... we have new people coming on board this year," he said.
Bigelow Aerospace is taking a
stepping-stone approach to the development of its space modules. Next in line
is the larger Galaxy module the company plans to launch in the latter part of 2008. The
entrepreneurial firm's habitat plans then lead to Sundancer -- a module that
will provide 180 cubic meters of habitable space and come fully equipped with life-support systems,
attitude control, on-orbit maneuverability, as well as reboost and deorbit capability. This larger module
-- sporting a trio of windows -- could support a three-person crew and be on orbit in the second half of 2010,
Bigelow said.
ITAR issues
While Bigelow
Aerospace is making strides in the development of its modules, one ongoing headache
is the export control and regulatory process, be it International Traffic in
Arms Regulations (ITAR) or telemetry issues, Gold said. "If
anything, the regulatory procedures have been more difficult for Genesis 2 than
Genesis 1. It rivals, if not exceeds, the technological difficulties that we
face."
While
improvements in dealing with ITAR are sorely needed, Gold saluted the Defense
Technology Security Administration's Spacelink system -- a newly overhauled
Internet portal that is simple, easy to use and
responsive to space companies like Bigelow Aerospace.
"It's a good
example of efficient, effective and simple government regulatory interaction.
The old Spacelink system was like trying to figure out a Rubik's Cube with a
blindfold on ... while the new system is trying to do a Rubik's Cube in a lighted
room when it has been solved already," Gold told Space News. "Export
control and ITAR are a barrier to entry for small entrepreneurial firms.
Particularly in aerospace, in this day and age, you can't have a cost-effective
and innovative operation without international participation," he added.
Yet another
arena that needs tackling is the issue of space transportation and the high price of
access to space. "Almost more than my snoring dog, that's what keeps me up at
night," Gold said.
Business
strategy
In April,
during the National Space Symposium to be held in Colorado Springs, Colo., Bigelow
plans to roll out his
firm's business plan -- a strategic approach that he admits has been under wraps
for several years.
"We think we
have some innovative ways that people have not been considering in terms of pushing
the private sector movement forward," Bigelow told Space News. "It was
decided that the sooner we start to talk about this the better."
To date,
Bigelow said, he has invested more than $90
million in Bigelow Aerospace. As a general contractor for 35 years, "we're not
strangers to contracting, to banking, to the financing of major projects.
That's crucial if you really want to get the financial horsepower involved. No. 1, the business
model has to serve a customer. No. 2 is it has to
be very cost-effective and No. 3 is that it has
got to do what it says it's going to do. The banking world appreciates that and
they respond ... Wall Street responds in predictable ways."
Bigelow said
the business structure that the company will outline
next month will not only support destinations in low Earth orbit, but also
operations on the Moon
and at Mars.
Bigelow said
what he plans to spotlight in April are categories
of destinations that transform space from just being a place of curiosity to
being a place of absolute global necessity. "I think we're going to be a very
good customer for the spaceport community ... a very good customer for the launch
folks as well. In detailing our plans, you'll see a very, very solid
terrestrial corollary to the real estate world that is huge. All we're doing is
adapting that entire structure to space."
