NASA's Inflatable Space Station Room

Image courtesy of Bigelow Aerospace

A new deal between NASA and a commercial spaceflight company to add a privately built module to the International Space Station could lead to future uses of the novel space technology beyond low-Earth orbit, space agency and company officials say.

NASA will pay $17.8 million to Bigelow Aerospace of North Las Vegas to build an inflatable module, test it and prep it for flight. The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) is to be launched around the summer of 2015.

The space agency and Bigelow officials provided details of the contract in a Las Vegas briefing today (Jan. 16).

The new inflatable BEAM will be launched to the International Space Station by a Falcon 9 rocket built by another private spaceflight company, California-based SpaceX. The module will be cocooned inside the unpressurized cargo hold of SpaceX's Dragon capsule atop the Falcon 9. NASA has already purchased the launch of the SpaceX Falcon under a separate Commercial Resupply Services contract.

The module will be installed on an open berth of the station's Node 3 connecting module using a robotic arm. Once it is attached, the inflatable room will be activated by station astronauts, adding to the volume of orbiting laboratory.

SEE ALSO: Photos: Bigelow's Inflatable Space Station Idea

An Inflatable Space Room

The module is cylindrical, weighs roughly 3,000 pounds (1,360 kilograms) and is about 13 feet (4 meters) long and 10.5 feet (3.2 m) wide.

Bigelow Aerospace's founder and president is Robert Bigelow, a Las Vegas-based general contractor, real estate tycoon, hotel businessman and developer. Since 1999, his company has been focused on creating affordable inflatable space habitats for national space agencies and corporate clients.

In 2006 and 2007 the firm launched orbiting prototypes of its expandable habitat technology, Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. Work is ongoing within Bigelow Aerospace on BA 330 modules, structures that offer 12,000 cubic feet (330 cubic meters) of internal space.

Michael Gold, director of Washington, D.C., operations and business growth for Bigelow Aerospace LLC, based in Chevy Chase, Md., said: "With Genesis 1 and 2, Bigelow Aerospace showed the world that it can achieve escape velocity from high costs. We're going to do this again with the BEAM, bringing both innovation and a vital demonstration of affordability to the crown jewel of NASA's human spaceflight program, the International Space Station."

A Technology Test

At this time, NASA's planned use of the BEAM is for technology demonstration, to validate experimental expandable habitat technology and let the space agency become more familiar with it, Gold told SPACE.com in an exclusive interview.

"I'm told the BEAM will be acoustically the quietest location aboard the station, due to the non-metallic nature of the structure," he said.

NASA's interest in the module for the International Space Station was first reported on SPACE.com by this reporter in January 2011 — so why the long glide path, some two years, for the project to become a reality?

In actuality, the program "moved forward with relative alacrity," Gold responded.

"The ISS is the pinnacle of the human spaceflight program. NASA went through a thorough amount of analysis prior to agreeing about BEAM … Analysis and study does take time," Gold said. "It demonstrates the attention and commitment to safety and quality that both NASA and Bigelow Aerospace have."

BEAM Bonus in Space

For Bigelow, there is another bonus from having BEAM  attached to the space station: the chance to generate more business.

"Many in the foreign community perceive NASA as the gold star. I can think of no stronger statement relative to NASA's confidence both in Bigelow Aerospace and expandable habitat technology than their desire to place BEAM aboard the ISS," Gold said. "That speaks volumes not just domestically, but possibly more importantly, overseas as well. I think that any sovereign client or potential clientele should be paying attention to this."

Gold said the private entrepreneurial firm is pleased to be working with NASA to further validate the promise and benefits of expandable habitat technology – and not only in low-Earth orbit, but beyond.

Beyond BEAM, Bigelow Aerospace is "moving aggressively" on the larger BA 330 module, "dedicating a great deal of resources" to expeditiously push forward an expandable habitat of that size.

According to the Bigelow Aerospace website, the BA 330 can function as an independent space station, and several BA 330 habitats can be connected together in a modular fashion to create an even larger and more capable orbital space complex.

Robert Bigelow and his team have extensively blueprinted concepts for their expandable habitats to be used at other destinations.

"Expandable habitats are an enabling technology that will make the dream of robust beyond-LEO human space exploration a reality," Gold said. "Regardless of the ultimate destination, be it L2 [Lagrange Point 2], the surface of the moon or even a historic mission to Mars, the large volumes provided by Bigelow Aerospace systems, combined with enhanced protection from radiation and physical debris, make habitats such as the BA 330 an essential part of any realistic beyond-LEO architecture."

Gold said he knows Capitol Hill wants to see a robust beyond-LEO human space exploration strategy, but that new funding will be hard to come by.

"The BA 330 and expandable habitats will not just offer enhanced protection from radiation and micrometeorites, but protect future astronauts from a much more dangerous threat …lack of funding," Gold concluded.

Via: "Mashable"

How Stars Are Formed and Born

Courtesy Of "NatGeoTV"

TDRS: Communicating Critical Data

As a vital information pipeline for space-based research and exploration ambitions, the TDRS constellation fulfills NASA's broadest communication demands. 

Now into it's fourth operational decade, the TDRS legacy continues to be communications excellence. 

The addition of the third generation of spacecraft will replenish the constellation and ensure that the critical lifeline of space-to-ground communication support will be available for many years to come. 

A Message From ISS To All Humankind

Courtesy Of "NASA"

NASA To Turn Asteroid Into Space Station Orbiting The Moon

Image via: Century 22 pbem

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) scientists are planning to capture a 500,000 kg asteroid, relocate it and transform it into a space station for astronauts to refuel at on their way to Mars.

This will be the first time a celestial object has ever been moved by humans. 

The White House’s office of science and technology will consider the $2.6 billion plan in the coming weeks as it prepares to set its space exploration agenda for the next decade.

A feasibility report prepared by Nasa and California Institute of Technology scientists outlined how they would go about capturing the asteroid.

An ‘asteroid capture capsule´ will be attached to an old Atlas V rocket and directed to the asteroid between the Earth and the Moon. Once close, the asteroid capsule will release a bag with diameter of 50 feet to wrap around the spinning rock using drawstrings. The craft would then turn on its thrusters, using an estimated 300 kg of propellant, to stop the asteroid in its tracks and tow it into a gravitationally neutral spot. From here space explorers will have a stationary base from which to launch trips deeper into space.

NASA, ... believed that technology would make it possible within 10-12 years. The technology would also open up the possibility of mining other asteroids for their metals and minerals. Some are full of iron which could be used for in the making of new space stations, others are made up of water which could be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen to make fuel.

Via: "LiveMint"

Enjoy A Tour Of The International Space Station

In her final days as Commander of the International Space Station, Sunita Williams of NASA recorded an extensive tour of the orbital laboratory and downlinked the video on Nov. 18, just hours before she, cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Flight Engineer Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency departed in their Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft for a landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan. 

The tour includes scenes of each of the station's modules and research facilities with a running narrative by Williams of the work that has taken place and which is ongoing aboard the orbital outpost.

The NASA - ESA InterPlanetary Internet

Astronaut On ISS Uses InterPlanetary Internet To Control Robot In Germany

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) used an experimental version of interplanetary Internet in late October to control an educational rover from the International Space Station, NASA says.

The experiment used NASA’s Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) protocol to transmit messages and demonstrate technology that one day may enable Internet-like communications with space vehicles and support habitats or infrastructure on another planet.

Space station Expedition 33 commander Sunita Williams in late October used a NASA-developed laptop to remotely drive a small LEGO robot at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. The European-led experiment used NASA’s DTN to simulate a scenario in which an astronaut in a vehicle orbiting a planetary body controls a robotic rover on the planet’s surface.

“The demonstration showed the feasibility of using a new communications infrastructure to send commands to a surface robot from an orbiting spacecraft and receive images and data back from the robot,” said Badri Younes, deputy associate administrator for space communications and navigation at NASA Headquarters. “The experimental DTN we’ve tested from the space station may one day be used by humans on a spacecraft in orbit around Mars to operate robots on the surface, or from Earth using orbiting satellites as relay stations.”

The DTN architecture is a new communications technology that enables standardized communications similar to the Internet to function over long distances and through time delays associated with on-orbit or deep space spacecraft or robotic systems. The core of the DTN suite is the Bundle Protocol (BP), which is roughly equivalent to the Internet Protocol (IP) that serves as the core of the Internet on Earth.

While IP assumes a continuous end-to-end data path exists between the user and a remote space system, DTN accounts for disconnections and errors. In DTN, data move through the network “hop-by-hop.” While waiting for the next link to become connected, bundles are temporarily stored and then forwarded to the next node when the link becomes available.

NASA’s work on DTN is part of the agency’s Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) Program. SCaN coordinates multiple space communications networks and network support functions to regulate, maintain and grow NASA’s space communications and navigation capabilities in support of the agency’s space missions.

Via: "Kurzweil AI"

Overview

On the 40th anniversary of the famous ‘Blue Marble’ photograph taken of Earth from space, Planetary Collective presents a short film documenting astronauts’ life-changing stories of seeing the Earth from the outside – a perspective-altering experience often described as the Overview Effect.

The Overview Effect, first described by author Frank White in 1987, is an experience that transforms astronauts’ perspective of the planet and mankind’s place upon it. Common features of the experience are a feeling of awe for the planet, a profound understanding of the interconnection of all life, and a renewed sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment.

‘Overview’ is a short film that explores this phenomenon through interviews with five astronauts who have experienced the Overview Effect. The film also features insights from commentators and thinkers on the wider implications and importance of this understanding for society, and our relationship to the environment.

CAST:

• EDGAR MITCHELL– Apollo 14 astronaut and founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences

• +Ron Garan – ISS astronaut and founder of humanitarian organization Fragile Oasis

• +Nicole Stott – Shuttle and ISS astronaut and member of Fragile Oasis

• JEFF HOFFMAN – Shuttle astronaut and senior lecturer at MIT

• SHANE KIMBROUGH – Shuttle/ISS astronaut and Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army

• FRANK WHITE – space theorist and author of the book ‘The Overview Effect’

• DAVID LOY- philosopher and author

• DAVID BEAVER – philosopher and co-founder of The Overview Institute

Planetary Collective: planetarycollective.com/

Overview Microsite: overviewthemovie.com/
Human Suits (original score): humansuits.com/

For More Information:

The Overview Institute: overviewinstitute.org/
Fragile Oasis: fragileoasis.org/

View From The ISS At Night

By Knate Myers


Every frame in this video is a photograph taken from the International Space Station. All credit goes to the crews on board the ISS.

I removed noise and edited some shots in photoshop. Compiled and arranged in Sony Vegas.

Music by John Murphy - Sunshine (Adagio In D Minor)
itunes.apple.com/us/album/sunshine-music-from-motion/id297702863

Image Courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory,
NASA Johnson Space Center, The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth

eol.jsc.nasa.gov