Astronauts on the International Space Station will get a fun addition to their space home-away-from-home in 2015. Their new annex is an inflatable balloon to be clamped to the side of the ISS first as a test, then be used as extra storage room.
Earlier this year NASA announced the addition, which they say will help us better understand how humans can explore and live in space. Inflatable houses as the future of space colonization? Yup, that's what we are talking about here.
Bigelow Aerospace got $17.8 million to develop the technology, NASA deputy Administrator Lori Garver said in a press release issued Jan. 16. They've named the inflatable room the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), and it is ultimately intended to be a habitat for astronauts on long-duration stays in space.
Check out some photos of the gear and launch from NASA. Also, Bigelow shared images of the habitat, and their plan for the future of expandable activity modules, with us.
The BEAM is cheaper to transport than a metal capsule because the fabric is much lighter and can be folded into a smaller space. It will be shipped inside the SpaceX Dragon capsule.
Then the Dragon capsule will be attached to a Falcon 9 rocket, which will ferry it to the International Space Station as part of a resupplying mission in 2015.
Once in space the BEAM will be taken out of the Dragon by a large robotic arm and attached to the ISS, as you see here.
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