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If at first you don't succeed, you might demand to look for mission control to figure out what's incorrect before you effort again. As we covered last week, the initial aggrandizement of the BEAM module went less than perfectly. The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module is important because existence able to employ inflatable modules as part of the ISS (or any future space station) could dramatically reduce the weight and bulk of aircraft said modules into orbit. SpaceX brought Axle to Station, collapsed for shipping, and it was installed on the aft side of the Tranquillity node on Apr 16th. It was supposed to expand smoothly according to one of these models:

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Instead, when control tried to pressurize the module, Beam expanded by just a few inches, getting stuck in its compacted state fifty-fifty though its internal pressure level rose sharply:

NASA shows u.s.a. here what Beam looks like while its expansion is in progress…

…and after successful aggrandizement:

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At present that it'southward been properly inflated, the next footstep is to get information technology up to normal operating pressure. Then it volition stay aboard the ISS for two years to undergo testing. Nobody is really going to live in this iteration of BEAM, even though it's a hab module; it's non tested well enough to trust like that notwithstanding. Instead, astronauts will routinely enter the module to have temperature readings, measure out radiations levels, and brand sure there are no grit bunnies building up. Only after it'southward been exhaustively tested against the extreme weather condition of space will it be put into service housing astronauts, experiments, or cargo.

Beam weighs about a ton and a half, and it's fabricated of layers of ultra-durable fabric over a rustproof aluminum frame. To reply the looming threat of space debris puncturing the module, NASA and Bigelow took several precautions. Outset, Bigelow made the module'due south skin from many layers. From inside to outside, the skin of Beam is made of an airtight barrier, a restraint layer providing primary structural back up (think "pressure level suit"), some micro-meteoroid and orbital debris (MMOD) layers, and external multi-layer insulation (MLI). Its outermost layer is fabricated of a Teflon-coated glass fabric called BETA material, chosen as much for its resistance to corrosion by atmospheric oxygen every bit for its ballistic-class toughness. BEAM too has a super tough MMOD shield. This is all to protect the astronauts who volition eventually live and piece of work in BEAM modules only like this, shielding them from debris and radiation while they're in space or on other planets. And to protect the space station to which it's fastened, when Axle is in operation, the hatches between it and the station default to closed. This ways that if Axle got hit by space junk, but BEAM would lose its air, not the whole station.

After its test catamenia, Axle volition be robotically detached from the space station, leaving orbit to fire up in the temper over about a year. This might sound crazy, based on not wanting burning space droppings to autumn on your head, but fear not. NASA points out that on boilerplate, there's a spacecraft re-entry a week, which nobody ever notices because nothing ever reaches the ground. In their words: "Since the beginning of the space age in the 1950s, there has been no confirmed report of an injury resulting from re-inbound space objects."

NASA is working hard on the inflatable habitats in office considering they desire to do a Mars mission. On such a long trip at such a huge distance, we really need to get the almost on-ground habitability for our payload cadet. NASA remarks:

NASA is investigating concepts for habitats that can keep astronauts salubrious during space exploration. Expandable habitats are ane such concept under consideration – they require less payload book on the rocket than traditional rigid structures, and expand afterwards being deployed in space to provide additional room for astronauts to alive and piece of work within. Beam will exist the showtime test of such a module fastened to the infinite station.

Anyone want to speculate on a possible future Mars collaboration betwixt NASA, ESA, and SpaceX?