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Bigelow Aerospace laid off all of its workers
Bigelow Aerospace -- the company that created the inflatable module attached to the International Space Station -- laid off 20 employees last week. Yesterday, it laid off its 68 remaining workers. According to SpaceNews, one employee described the company's decision to halt operations and let go of its employees as the results of a "perfect storm of problems," one of which was the coronavirus pandemic. A spokesperson told SpaceNews that Bigelow Aerospace plans on re-hiring the laid-off workers, but other sources are dubious of this claim.
Bigelow Aerospace plans an inflatable habitat for lunar orbit
Bigelow Aerospace has been working on inflatable space habitats for a while now. The company sent a small inflatable unit to the ISS that added a small living area on the space station and it partnered with United Launch Alliance (ULA) last year on plans to launch its B330 module to Low Earth Orbit. Now, the company has just announced that it will continue the partnership and send another B330 inflatable habitat to Low Lunar Orbit by 2022.
NASA says the ISS' inflatable module is doing great
It's been almost six months since the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) was attached to the ISS, and NASA now has some early data to share. According to BEAM Manager Steve Munday, it's been doing well and performing as expected after the installation hiccup that prevented it from unfolding the first time. To start with, NASA Langley scientists didn't find any sign of large debris impact that could affect the module's ability to protect inhabitants. The folks over at NASA's Johnson Space Center didn't detect abnormally high radiation levels inside the habitat, as well -- in fact, it exhibited levels similar to the rest of the space station's.
NASA will build full-scale deep space habitats on Earth
NASA is already preparing for humanity's journey into the great unknown, and part of its efforts is developing a suitable habitat for future spacefarers. In order to create a place where people can live outside our own planet, the agency has teamed up with six private corporations to build full-scale ground prototypes of the habitats they designed. NASA has chosen those six out of all the proposals it got for the second Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships. And as you can see above, Boeing is one of them.
ICYMI: Brain injury gadget, DARPA future plane and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-363435{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-363435, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-363435{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-363435").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Samsung has jumped on the preventing-brain-injury bandwagon, developing a brainBAND to light up to indicate the severity of a hit in contact sports. Meanwhile, DARPA is designing a new airplane that is a blend between a fixed aircraft and a helicopter. And NASA is about to begin using inflatable modules at the International Space Station, in case that's something humans can set up on the surface of Mars. We hit on a number of big stories this week, but you will definitely impress your friends if you know what happened to Microsoft's AI chat bot within 24 hours. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
NASA pays $17.8M for inflatable ISS expansion, orbital ball pit unconfirmed
Were you one of those lucky kids whose parents got you an inflatable castle for your birthday party, thus making all the other kids in the neighborhood jealous? You're about to get one-upped. NASA has just signed a $17.8 million contract with Bigelow Airspace to built an inflatable, expandable module to plug into the International Space Station. Bigelow already has prototype habitats orbiting the globe and last year announced a partnership with SpaceX to launch its BA 330 (pictured above) sometime in 2015. Details of the ISS expansion are set to be announced this upcoming Wednesday, giving you just a few more days to gloat about any childhood bouncy-bounce exploits.
