Bigelow Aerospace, A new Genesis in space Options

[ljk4-1]

To quote:

On June 16, he'll use a Russian Dnepr rocket to launch a 1/3-scale Genesis model of his planned commercial orbital space station. That much has been public for a while. What I didn't learn until just now is what will be on that module.

Freefloating inside will be 1,000 photocards and small personal objects contributed by Bigelow employees. If all goes well, those items will be continuously blown throughout the pressurized module in a kind of space collage. Six onboard cameras will stream video to Bigelow's new website, which will launch tomorrow or Friday. Seven external cameras will provide views of the Earth from space and the outside of the module.

If that doesn't get even the most disinterested member of the public at least intrigued about the possibilities of space travel, I don't know what will.

But it gets better. Subject to a successful launch of the first module, Bigelow will launch a second Genesis module in September, and that one will contain photos and other small items contributed by anyone who cares to pony up $295.

Full article here:

http://michaelbelfiore.com/blog/2006/05/bi...s-to-orbit.html

[Guest_DonPMitchell_*]

I disagree. Real advancement in space exploration requries a radical paradigm shift.

NASA and the ESA have limited budgets and limited agendas. On a few billion a year, space exploration wil never go beyond sending a small probe to a planet every few years. From Sputnik to Apollo to Venus Express, space exploration has only been viewed by politicians as an exercise in boosting nationalistic pride. Some scientists have a greater vision, but many of them just see it as an exercise in promoting their academic careers. And tax payers are only willing to spend so much for this sort of exotic entertainment.

If you look at the history of automobiles, airplanes, computers, telephones, etc.; there is no case where major innovation and expansion has occured as a burocratically supervised government program. Furthermore, when a technology does expand and become economically viable, there is inevitably a flurry of new invention. This is already true about many aspects of space. A university scientist might be able to build a camera or a radiation detector, but big engineering efforts like rocket engines and spacecrafts are the exclusive domain of industries like Lockheed and Boeing and TRW.

The bulk of work and innovation in space is dictated by the market for commercial and military satellites. It's like the days of the $100,000 UNIX workstation and 10,000 sites on the internet in the 1980s. It is commercial, but nothing like the subsequent era of personal computers and 100,000,000 sites on the net. If you want that kind of revolutionary change in space exploration and cost reduction, you must open up a real market and engage professional labor on a larger scale.

Bigelow Aerospace is kind of a joke, like a lot of the small private space efforts now. But it is still remarkable that a private company has put such an object in orbit. And what if a serious player like Boeing or Lockheed decided this was economically viable? Then it would be a whole different game, and a vast pool of inventive and experienced people would begin to turn their attention to the task.