Bigelow's private moonbase concept

[Sam Fraser]

Awwww, isn't it cute? Can I have one?

http://www.space.com/images/i/5166/i02/bigelow-base-1-100414-02.jpg

More coverage here:

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/private-moon-bases-bigelow-aerospace-100414.html

[JohnHunt]

Hey Sam, Thanks for that link and those pictures. I am suprised that this was in the news back in April and I didn't see it at all.

Some thoughts:
- I don't see regolith covering the habitat. So I don't know if he plans for it to be habitats for longer term stays or just sorties. Like the rest of us here, I am of the opinion that we need to be going there permanently. So, we've got to take care of the shielding issue.

- Bigelow could bring technical expertise, legitimacy, and investment into any sustainable space development plan. If he could play well in the sandbox, I would like to include him in some sort of RAPSODy consortium.

- He speaks about needing to master LEO first. If you are a hotel magnet, I could certainly understand this perspective. There is probably more vacation business to be had in LEO than on the lunar surface. But from Mark and my perspective (and perhaps the rest of us here), our goal is to establish an off-Earth, self-sustaining as soon as practical. LEO cannot be made self-sustainable since essentially no mass naturally exists in LEO. So, I'm interested in exploiting lunar resources early.

- Inflatables don't need an HLV. So, there is one less reason for NASA to divert billions from better uses to an HLV.

- Bigelow's assembling a consortium of "soverign clients" concerns me. I view NASA money as being necessary in order to quickly establish a LITL system and to position private groups in order to do the manned colonization part. But NASA money needs to go to American companies because it is taxpayer money. There is the issue of who would own the LITL components after it is constructed.

[Sam Fraser]

Glad you liked it, John. Here's another related story dated January 17, 2011:

Back to the Moon: How New Lunar Bases Will Work
http://www.space.com/10634-moon-base-lunar-outpost-technology.html

[stevend]

Some thoughts:
- I don't see regolith covering the habitat. So I don't know if he plans for it to be habitats for longer term stays or just sorties. Like the rest of us here, I am of the opinion that we need to be going there permanently. So, we've got to take care of the shielding issue.


Hi John, Look at the image I've attached and you'll see two astronauts draping strips of something over the habitat on the right. Each of these strips are possibly segmented bags of regolith. See Bigelow's US patent 7703721, "Regolith container for use with a structure on an extraterrestrial mass":
http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=19POAAAAEBAJ&dq=bigelow+aerospace
-Steve

[stevend]

One other Bigelow patent I should point out that's relevant to this thread is their US patent 7,469,864, "Method for assembling and landing a habitable module on an extraterrestrial body":
http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=M7CyAAAAEBAJ&dq=7469864
In general, all their patents make for good reading. After all, they were spawned by needing solutions to real (out of this) world problems that they encountered in trying to make this stuff work.
-Steve

[Rhyshaelkan]

And that is one thing Mark Prado talks about on the PERMANENT pages. The possibility to patent new techniques, processes and equipment in the process of getting, out there.

[Mark Prado]

My first job out of the university was with the US Patent Office as a patent examiner, so I understand very well how to structure a patent's claims as well as description properly. It's interesting to see Bigelow's.

(Funny but I've not yet submitted any patent applications myself, only copyrights and trademarks. I've worked on a few concepts for a possible patent application in the distant past, but did not submit any applications for patent. Ironic that I've done everything EXCEPT patents. All pro se.)

I worked for the patent office for only about a year, long enough to go thru a few phases of the academy (mainly about patents, but also about trademarks and copyrights), plus had a few dozen patent applications assigned to me to analyze / research / make decisions on. They plug new employees into a full fledged role very shortly after they arrive, with a short and practical crash course, then full fledged work, then a more advanced, mainly case studies course, then back to work, and so on.

Most applications with anything patentable in them were essentially sent back to the applicant to narrow or refine the claims.

I resigned when I switched to my space job.

Nevertheless, I think my patent office experience will serve us very well in the future.

Like in other fields, there are good patent attorneys and not so good patent attorneys, to say the least...

[stevend]

This just in re Bigelow:
http://www.8newsnow.com/story/13967660/i-team-bigelow-aerospace-begins-big-expansion
Nothing really new - the talk of NASA attaching a Bigelow module to the ISS was announced a few weeks ago - but in the video is a shot which I've attached below. Note the module on the left has more layers of those regolith tubes draped on it. Is that how you imagined a moonbase module would look? And notice just how much is piled on by comparing to the module in front. I guess there are advantages to 1/6th G.
-Steve

[Sam Fraser]

That was a thrill to watch! Looking forward to the next news segment "tomorrow".

[stevend]

That was a thrill to watch! Looking forward to the next news segment "tomorrow".

And here's "tomorrow"'s. If you thought the last one was thrilling, wait'll you watch this one:
http://www.8newsnow.com/story/13974654/i-team-bigelow-aerospace-may-get-module-on-space-station
Sounds like this Nevada local station is the one to watch.

And it includes the attached close-up of the regolith tubes. I wonder how they intend to get them up over the modules? I'm no expert in working in 1/6th G but I'd think a crane, maybe a winch on a rolling skeletal frame would still be needed. Since it's only 1/6th G it could be a lightweight crane.
-Steve