NASA develops inflatable lunar habitat

As much as we wish this was some type of anti-gravity bouncy castle, NASA's current experiments with inflatable structures are intended for slightly less entertaining implementation on the moon, where crews will use them as outposts for research, testing, storage, and living. NASA's contractor, ILC Dover, has presented a capsule-like prototype that's 12 feet in diameter and made of multilayer fabric. It's currently being evaluated for emerging technologies such as flexible structural health monitoring systems, self-healing materials, and radiation-protective materials. In addition, they showed a connecting smaller inflatable structure that served as a demonstration airlock. To justify these solutions, the team's next step is to perform studies comparing inflatable and rigid structures for crew habitats.The modular airtight inflatables are favored for being lightweight and adaptable, and if all goes well, the first extended-stay lunar missions could start as early as 2020.

[Via Primidi]

[Farley @ Mar 2nd 2007 11:44PM]

Multi-layer fabric?? Oh, yes, I'll be walking into one of these, taking off my helmet and going to sleep while the skin gets riddled with cicro-meteorites.

Talk about sleep apnia. Gyaaahgh

[gk @ Mar 3rd 2007 12:03AM]

can somebody say Bigalow Aerospace?

[BloodFalcon @ Mar 3rd 2007 12:32AM]

two words come to my mind when I see this:

EXPLOSIVE DECOMPRESSION

[Fearless @ Mar 3rd 2007 12:58AM]

hmm... inflatable habitats eh... wonder if they come with NASA approved inflatable women for those long term missions ;)

[noah @ Mar 4th 2007 5:58AM]

They were testing those, but some of them started to act all crazy when the male astronaughts got newer, prettier blow-up dolls. It all got pretty hairy when portable potty bags went missing...

[reticulate @ Mar 3rd 2007 4:12AM]

Farely: Might as well not put the suit back on when you go outside, then, since they are made out of the same sort of stuff, if not thinner.

I figure that since there's practically no friction for micrometeorites as they plummet towards the moon, they'd just be fast-moving rocks with none of that burning aftertaste. And a fast-moving rock is probably going to do more damage to a metal-skinned object than a shock-absorbing air-filled flexible container.

These are probably the only practical way you'd see habitation on Mars. Carrying prefabricated metal or plastic walls is going to be far too heavy to get up there and too impractical to assemble once you actually arrive.

[mrmckeb @ Mar 3rd 2007 6:18AM]

Does NASA know about meteorites?

The only time a house built of blow-up-stuff will work is when it's surrounded by a protective shield - such as the Earths atmostphere!!!!!

[noah @ Mar 4th 2007 5:58AM]

Read up on Bigelow space industries. They are probably working with NASA on this habitat, which will be covered with moon dirt for protection against solar radiation (it does fine against micro-meteors, they already have a small craft in earth orbit). But its difficult to work with dirt on the moon b/c of machine maintenance. Bigelow is also working on that.

[LS @ Mar 3rd 2007 7:06AM]

now all they gotta do is figure out how to get to the lunar surface without the help of hollywood...

[Bad Beaver @ Mar 3rd 2007 7:57AM]

On the other hand, just putting it all into a nice, big, dark hangar + sandbox somewhere totally eliminates the particle impact related problems.

Or they will just put a handy duct tape dispenser inside.

[J363J @ Mar 3rd 2007 7:28AM]

Isn't inexpensive robot construction of orbital habitats, habitats on the moon and mars, and manned interplanetary spacecraft possible with teraflops of processing power available? Any private companies working on this?

[noah @ Mar 4th 2007 5:58AM]

Yes, see the second comment and do a google search.

[Richard Lai @ Mar 3rd 2007 7:44AM]

Whack a few flexible LCDs on the wall and you've got yourself a lunar cinema!

[jojones88 @ Mar 3rd 2007 8:56AM]

where does the air come from?

[Blake @ Mar 3rd 2007 9:14AM]

Flatulence

[noah @ Mar 4th 2007 5:58AM]

Compressed, I suppose.

[Joe @ Mar 3rd 2007 10:42AM]

Why aren't these things black so that they can absorb light energy from the sun???

[Ayle @ Mar 3rd 2007 1:04PM]

Because they dont want hard boiled astronauts

[noah @ Mar 4th 2007 5:58AM]

These moon modules will be covered with moon dirt (which is awesomer than earth dirt by default) for protection against harmful solar/cosmic radiation (earth has an atmosphere for that). I imagine they will have solar panels for the electricity/heating jobs.

[dzambi @ Mar 3rd 2007 10:43AM]

What's "Flatulence"?

[hesh @ Mar 3rd 2007 3:01PM]

Looks like an early model of a Tachikoma.

[Zak @ Mar 3rd 2007 5:57PM]

Wow..Money well spent! All those millions to do what. Land on the moon and live in the worlds most expensive tent? Nice. What about ending poverty on earth? I think we should look at the mess earth is in before heading off to bugger up and go camping on other planets. Go Nasa!

P.S. Where is the space deck chair that holds your space beer?

[Tinyhands @ Mar 5th 2007 11:04AM]

Don't get too excited just yet, nerds. NASA "contractors" (apart from being a dime a dozen) are always building "prototypes" like this. A press release from the company has nothing to do with whether or not it'll ever fly.

And since most prototypes are not funded by NASA, your precious tax dollars didn't get spent on this. Contractors build them with their own funds in hopes to convince NASA to buy it later and/or influence the RFP process.

[Zak @ Mar 4th 2007 12:30AM]

What's in my little man imagination Oprah dust? The fact this is the worlds most expensive tent? Or that landing on the moon has achieved nothing more than nonstick pans and pens that write upside down?

[RX @ May 31st 2007 8:43AM]

I wonder if they got the idea from Dragonball, this is just like Capsule Corp!