More Bigelow info

From Spacetoday:

http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/new...s/07054wna.xml

From the article:

"Bigelow's in-orbit test plan involves:


a.. Two Genesis flights. The 2005 and 2006 Genesis payloads would each be
3,000-lb. units measuring 15 X 6.2 ft. before inflation. Cameras and
telemetry would observe inflation to double that size. The Genesis flights
would demonstrate inflation technology, pressure integrity and debris-shield
deployment.


b.. Two "Guardian" flights. Also set for launch on the Dneper, these
missions--planned for April and August 2007--would be 45% scale modules
carrying critical life-support system test hardware.


a.. Nautilus. Since the operational payload would weigh up to 50,000 lb.
including docking interfaces, a Russian Proton, Chinese heavy Long March or
U.S. heavy launcher would have to be used.

The watermelon-shaped Nautilus would weigh 20-25 tons and, once inflated in
orbit, measure 45 X 22 ft. with 330 cu. meters of volume."

Basically the volume of ISS in one Delta/Atlas Heavy launch.
IMO even the smaller versions would make a great Lunar base.

Another interesting side note is the Chinese are showing great interest in
Bigelow's design for a Chinese space station.

Anyone know why the 2.5 inches of water?
That does not seem enough to provide good radition sheilding but adds a lot
of weight.

"DGH" wrote in message .. .
snip

Anyone know why the 2.5 inches of water?
That does not seem enough to provide good radition sheilding but adds a lot
of weight.

One thing that 2.5 inches of water accomplishes is self healing skin
in case of micrometeorites. Another is temperature smoothing. They
wouldn't have to be filled with water immediately, so you could send
them up empty, and gradually fill them with recycled water as it was
available. But I don't know.
Harmon