Bigelow Expandable Activity Module: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 08:35, 22 June 2021

Revision as of 18:41, 22 June 2021

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== History ==

NASA originally considered the idea of inflatable habitats in the 1960s, and developed the [[TransHab]] inflatable module concept in the late 1990s. The TransHab project was canceled by Congress in 2000,<ref name="nasa2000"/><ref name="nasa2000conf"/><ref name="spaceref2261"/> and Bigelow Aerospace purchased the rights to the patents developed by NASA to pursue private space station designs.<ref name="Seedhouse2014-8"/> In 2006 and 2007, Bigelow launched two demonstration modules to Earth orbit, [[Genesis I]] and [[Genesis II (space habitat)|Genesis II]].<ref name="space20060712"/><ref name="nature20070705"/>

NASA re-initiated analysis of expandable module technology for a variety of potential missions beginning in early 2010.<ref name="ns20100303"/><ref name="Sang2010"/> Various options were considered, including procurement from commercial provider Bigelow Aerospace, for providing what in 2010 was proposed to be a [[toroid|torus-shaped]] storage module for the [[International Space Station]]. One application of the toroidal BEAM design was as a [[centrifuge]] demo preceding further developments of the NASA [[Nautilus-X]] multi-mission exploration concept vehicle.<ref name="hobbyspace-nautilusX"/> In January 2011, Bigelow projected that the BEAM module could be built and made flight-ready 24 months after a build contract was secured.<ref name="sdc20110126"/>