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Bigelow Aerospace, A new Genesis in space
ljk4-1
post Jun 1 2006, 07:18 PM
Post #1


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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


--------------------
"After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance.
I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard,
and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does
not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is
indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have
no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft."

- Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853

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ljk4-1
post Jun 7 2006, 04:04 PM
Post #2


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Group: Members
Posts: 2454
Joined: 8-July 05
From: NGC 5907
Member No.: 430



Test flight for space hotel delayed

Russian launch of Bigelow's inflatable module now set for July

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13171475/

By James Oberg, NBC News space analyst

Special to MSNBC

The much-anticipated first orbital test of technology that could lead to
a "space hotel" will be delayed, Bigelow Aerospace announced Tuesday. The
blastoff, widely believed to have been planned for June 16, will now not
take place before early July.

"We have just been informed that there will be a three- to four-week
delay of our first launch," Chris Reed, publicist for the Las Vegas-based
company, said in an e-mail advisory. "We are told that if there are no other
delays, our new launch time frame will be between July 4th and July 14th."

The Genesis 1 payload will be a one-third-scale model of an inflatable
habitation module that could form the backbone of an orbital facility for
space tourists and commercial space researchers sometime in the next decade.
NASA experimented with the concept early in the international space station
program, but budget cuts forced them to terminate research. Bigelow
Aerospace has picked up that approach and has perfected the technology,
observers say.

The test flight is expected to subject the flexible exterior wall
material to space conditions for an extended period of time, while interior
instrumentation will monitor pressure and temperature. In theory, a flexible
wall should be even more resistant than a metal wall to penetration by
micrometeorites and space debris.

In addition to the space hotel angle, the mission is of high interest
because it would be the first commercial satellite launch from an active
Russian military missile base, where dozens of SS-18 Satan intercontinental
ballistic missiles remain aimed at the United States, each with 10
thermonuclear warheads.

The launch vehicle, a commercialized version of the SS-18 called the
Dnepr, has already made several successful satellite launches from the
Russian main spaceport at Baikonur in Kazakhstan. Commercialized by the
Kosmotras Corp., it can carry up to 3 tons of cargo into orbit.

Two years of preparation -- For the past two years, officials of the
Russian Defense Ministry have been

preparing to launch the same commercial configuration directly from this
military base. In that way, the operational budget will go to the Strategic
Rocket Forces, the agency that runs the base at Dombarovsky, rather than the
Military Space Forces, which until recently ran most of the Baikonur
operations.

Genesis 1 will be only the first of a long series of commercial satellite
launches that it is hoped will be made from Dombarovsky, a missile base just
east of Orsk in the southwest corner of Siberia.

According to Reed, the reasons for the Genesis 1 delay are "due to
special preparations that the launch provider is continuing to make for our
flight." Bigelow Aerospace only last week unveiled new pages on its Web site
dealing with hitherto-undisclosed features of the payload, involving views
that will be transmitted to Earth.

"This flight contains our Genesis 1 spacecraft with a total of 13 cameras
inside and outside the spacecraft," Reed explained. External cameras will
show scenes of Earth. The interior cameras will show floating personal items
placed aboard the spacecraft by the firm's employees.

Fees for flying mementos -- Bigelow Aerospace is now seeking private
customers willing to pay modest fees to place their own personal items on
the next payload. "The Genesis 2 spacecraft scheduled to fly this coming
fall will be our first commercial effort," Reed continued, "and it is for
that flight that we are currently taking only reservations.

"If the Genesis 1 spacecraft functions as anticipated," he said, "we
shall then proceed to contact all of the parties who have made Genesis 2
reservations and complete the transactions to 'Fly Your Stuff.'"

Reservations are still being taken, he added.

"Only after we have launched our first spacecraft and obtained
satisfactory results from a variety of information sources onboard the
spacecraft will we then actually convert reservations to purchases," he
explained.

Photo: Eventually, Bigelow Aerospace hopes to dock inflatable space
modules together in orbit to construct a hotel, as shown in this artist's
conception.


--------------------
"After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance.
I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard,
and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does
not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is
indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have
no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft."

- Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853

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Posts in this topic
- ljk4-1   Bigelow Aerospace   Jun 1 2006, 07:18 PM
- - chris   Given that its an unmanned flight, the idea of sen...   Jun 2 2006, 09:10 AM
|- - AndyWard   QUOTE (chris @ Jun 2 2006, 10:10 AM) Give...   Jun 2 2006, 11:52 AM
|- - ustrax   QUOTE (AndyWard @ Jun 2 2006, 12:52 PM) A...   Jun 2 2006, 02:01 PM
|- - Bob Shaw   QUOTE (AndyWard @ Jun 2 2006, 12:52 PM) A...   Jun 2 2006, 02:40 PM
- - ljk4-1   Test flight for space hotel delayed Russian launc...   Jun 7 2006, 04:04 PM
- - RNeuhaus   A new updated news about an inflatable spacecraft....   Jun 7 2006, 07:50 PM
- - hal_9000   From http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2006/0...   Jul 12 2006, 02:43 PM
- - argv   space.com reports the thing has been launched into...   Jul 12 2006, 05:16 PM
- - nprev   Pretty cool, and definitely ambitious. Here's ...   Jul 12 2006, 06:12 PM
- - DonPMitchell   There is a famous architecture book entitled Learn...   Jul 12 2006, 07:11 PM
- - argv   the bbc science/technology website has a little mo...   Jul 12 2006, 08:03 PM
|- - mars loon   There is also a mention on NASAWATCH today July 12...   Jul 13 2006, 01:20 AM
|- - tfisher   This is exciting for the reason that it is somethi...   Jul 13 2006, 01:42 AM
- - hal_9000   From http://www.livescience.com/blogs/author/leona...   Jul 13 2006, 02:31 AM
- - nprev   ...completely nominal, then? I'm surprised tha...   Jul 13 2006, 05:50 PM
|- - ljk4-1   QUOTE (nprev @ Jul 13 2006, 01:50 PM) .....   Jul 13 2006, 05:56 PM
- - Toma B   As I understand it, there are few cammeras onboard...   Jul 13 2006, 06:10 PM
- - Adam   http://www.livescience.com/blogs/author/leonarddav...   Jul 13 2006, 06:46 PM
|- - Toma B   QUOTE (Adam @ Jul 13 2006, 08:46 PM) ...g...   Jul 13 2006, 06:59 PM
|- - Bob Shaw   One thing about the Bigelow website is the, well, ...   Jul 13 2006, 08:11 PM
|- - Comga   B)-->QUOTE(Toma B @ Jul 13 2006, 12:59 PM...   Jul 14 2006, 03:09 AM
|- - djellison   B)-->QUOTE(Toma B @ Jul 13 2006, 07:59 PM...   Jul 14 2006, 06:58 AM
- - ljk4-1   So many pro-space folks want the space industry to...   Jul 14 2006, 01:48 PM
- - Bill Harris   From Wikipedia: QUOTE Robert T. Bigelow is a hotel...   Jul 14 2006, 08:13 PM
- - DonPMitchell   I disagree. Real advancement in space exploration...   Jul 14 2006, 09:13 PM
|- - The Messenger   QUOTE (DonPMitchell @ Jul 14 2006, 03:13 ...   Jul 15 2006, 05:39 PM
- - tfisher   Bigelow has posted a first picture from the orbite...   Jul 15 2006, 01:27 AM
- - DonPMitchell   I don't think I've seen a link here yet, b...   Jul 15 2006, 02:51 AM
- - Bill Harris   >Real advancement in space exploration requries...   Jul 15 2006, 08:56 AM
- - dvandorn   Let's face up to it -- the days in which a lon...   Jul 15 2006, 06:01 PM
- - DonPMitchell   I think for plant irrigation and dairy farming, I ...   Jul 15 2006, 09:03 PM
- - The Messenger   Fair assessment, Don. I am anticipating new, fun...   Jul 16 2006, 12:48 PM
- - edstrick   There are fundamentally different types of breakth...   Jul 17 2006, 08:07 AM
|- - Jim from NSF.com   QUOTE (edstrick @ Jul 17 2006, 04:07 AM) ...   Jul 17 2006, 11:42 PM
|- - Jim from NSF.com   QUOTE (edstrick @ Jul 17 2006, 04:07 AM) ...   Jul 17 2006, 11:48 PM
- - crabbsaline   New images up for 7/17/06: Genesis 1 Images from B...   Jul 17 2006, 09:46 PM
- - djellison   Reminds me of the emails I get from Uni of Tokyo...   Jul 17 2006, 10:32 PM
- - lyford   short videos up at http://www.bigelowaerospace.co...   Jul 18 2006, 04:49 AM
|- - AndyG   QUOTE (lyford @ Jul 18 2006, 05:49 AM) sh...   Jul 18 2006, 12:05 PM
|- - lyford   QUOTE (AndyG @ Jul 18 2006, 05:05 AM) ......   Jul 24 2006, 10:27 PM
- - DonPMitchell   "Where American entrepreneurs go, European bu...   Jul 24 2006, 09:56 PM
- - hal_9000   more pics http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/out_the...   Jul 24 2006, 10:57 PM
- - dvandorn   Hmm -- in all three of the interior shots they hav...   Jul 24 2006, 11:09 PM
- - um3k   Other Doug, http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/out_th...   Jul 24 2006, 11:32 PM
- - remcook   new pictures: http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/out_...   Aug 2 2006, 04:30 PM
- - PhilHorzempa   My take on the flight of Genesis 1 is this - we ar...   Aug 4 2006, 04:59 AM
- - PhilHorzempa   A few more thoughts on Genesis 1/Transhab. Fir...   Aug 6 2006, 04:04 AM
|- - jabe   I wonder if Bigelows "hotel" or some oth...   Sep 13 2006, 02:51 PM
|- - Jim from NSF.com   QUOTE (jabe @ Sep 13 2006, 10:51 AM) I wo...   Sep 14 2006, 03:44 AM
|- - jabe   QUOTE (Jim from NSF.com @ Sep 14 2006, 03...   Sep 14 2006, 05:36 PM
- - dvandorn   How the heck do they think they're going to ex...   Sep 15 2006, 01:52 AM
|- - Drkskywxlt   QUOTE (dvandorn @ Sep 15 2006, 03:52 AM) ...   Sep 15 2006, 06:50 AM
|- - AndyG   QUOTE (Drkskywxlt @ Sep 15 2006, 07:50 AM...   Sep 22 2006, 08:29 AM
|- - Drkskywxlt   QUOTE (AndyG @ Sep 22 2006, 10:29 AM) The...   Sep 22 2006, 12:11 PM
||- - ugordan   What's the full mass of ISS compared to an emp...   Sep 22 2006, 12:49 PM
|- - paxdan   QUOTE (AndyG @ Sep 22 2006, 09:29 AM) Why...   Sep 22 2006, 12:52 PM
- - jabe   interesting.. LM and bigelow.. 16 launches a year?...   Sep 21 2006, 05:57 PM
- - Jim from NSF.com   How are you going to power it? Also, how do get ...   Sep 22 2006, 12:45 PM
|- - AndyG   QUOTE (Jim from NSF.com @ Sep 22 2006, 01...   Sep 22 2006, 01:15 PM
|- - paxdan   QUOTE (AndyG @ Sep 22 2006, 02:15 PM) ...   Sep 22 2006, 01:18 PM
|- - djellison   QUOTE (AndyG @ Sep 22 2006, 02:15 PM) Las...   Sep 22 2006, 01:21 PM
|- - Drkskywxlt   QUOTE (AndyG @ Sep 22 2006, 03:15 PM) Las...   Sep 22 2006, 01:39 PM
||- - AndyG   Bah-humbug! Ok, I can see that they're...   Sep 22 2006, 02:41 PM
|||- - Jim from NSF.com   QUOTE (AndyG @ Sep 22 2006, 10:41 AM) The...   Sep 22 2006, 03:24 PM
|||- - djellison   QUOTE (AndyG @ Sep 22 2006, 03:41 PM) Thi...   Sep 22 2006, 03:27 PM
||- - Jim from NSF.com   QUOTE (Drkskywxlt @ Sep 22 2006, 09:39 AM...   Sep 22 2006, 03:19 PM
|- - Jim from NSF.com   QUOTE (AndyG @ Sep 22 2006, 09:15 AM) Las...   Sep 22 2006, 03:32 PM
- - Jim from NSF.com   the orbiter at 230K lb would be a significant port...   Sep 22 2006, 12:54 PM
|- - ugordan   QUOTE (Jim from NSF.com @ Sep 22 2006, 01...   Sep 22 2006, 01:12 PM
- - Jim from NSF.com   All these proposals, ignore the fact that disposin...   Sep 22 2006, 03:22 PM
- - DonPMitchell   Lockheed/Bigelow "Lockheed Martin and Bigelo...   Sep 26 2006, 02:53 PM
|- - Drkskywxlt   QUOTE (DonPMitchell @ Sep 26 2006, 04:53 ...   Sep 27 2006, 02:45 PM
- - Jim from NSF.com   They say the CLV is safer. It definately won...   Sep 27 2006, 03:56 PM
- - Rakhir   Bigelow suffers Genesis II delay The launch of Bi...   Jan 16 2007, 10:02 AM
- - Rakhir   Genesis II launched at 15:02 UTC The status of th...   Jun 28 2007, 03:53 PM
- - jabe   There have been lots of updates at bigelow site. ...   Jul 12 2007, 12:18 PM
- - jabe   Bigelow has update of a picture.. pretty neat one ...   Aug 30 2007, 10:34 PM
- - stevesliva   Looks like a fisheye lens was used.   Aug 31 2007, 01:13 AM
- - jabe   looks like they are ready to play space bingo   Oct 16 2007, 11:37 AM
- - jabe   update at Bigelow site QUOTE Engineers at Bigelow ...   Apr 19 2008, 12:27 AM
- - tfisher   From one of the image captions: "The image sh...   Apr 19 2008, 02:39 AM


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