Space Update: Inflatables to Join International Space Station
Bigelow Aerospace has a dream to create hotels in space using inflatable, expandable modules. Awarded a $17.8 million contract by NASA this week, Bigelow, owned by Robert Bigelow of Budget Suites of America, plans to launch an inflatable module into space where it will remain for two years and serve as a storage module attached to the ISS. A news conference is planned for January 16 at Bigelow's headquarters in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Bigelow, featured in past articles, has worked with the Russian space program for several years and previously launched two inflatables, Genesis 1 and 2. The former went into space in 2006. The latter in 2007. Both remain in orbit.
In the two images below on the left is a full-scale Bigelow module, and on the right the ISS with module attached. The current contract would be for a smaller inflatable than what is displayed here but Bigelow's goal is to send modules with greatly expanded living space into orbit and eventually the Moon to serve as human habitations.
In the NASA media advisory it refers to a Bigelow Expandable Activity Module. We will know a lot more about what exactly is planned on this coming Wednesday. The conference is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Digg
Facebook
Google
LinkedIn
Twitter
Yahoo
Like us on Facebook
WorldFutureSoc on TwitterNotice
Essays and comments posted in World Future Society and THE FUTURIST magazine blog portion of this site are the intellectual property of the authors, who retain full responsibility for and rights to their content. For permission to publish, distribute copies, use excerpts, etc., please contact the author. The opinions expressed are those of the author. The World Future Society takes no stand on what the future will or should be like.
About 21st Century Tech
Len Rosen is futurist, writer, and researcher based in Toronto, Canada. Read more of his work at 21stcentech.com. Follow him at @lenrosen4.
Free Email Newsletter
Sign up for Futurist Update, our free monthly email newsletter. Just type your email into the box below and click subscribe.
Blogs
Headlines at 21st Century Tech for May 17, 2013
This is my last posting for the next few days. I will be taking my office apart so that we can move to our new apartment downtown next Tuesday. I will be unplugged and disconnected except by tablet. Expect me to be back in the saddle before the end of next week probably in time to provide you with some more headlines. In the interim these are the stories I share with you this week:
Colorado: the Alternative Transportation Mecca?
Today, literally thousands of alternative transportation vehicles are coming out of the woodwork and they nearly all have the same problem – no place to drive them. Most are banned from biking and hiking trails, and they are neither licensed, nor licensable, for use on the streets. I’d like to discuss some new possible solutions and why Colorado is poised to take the lead in the alternative transportation marketplace.
Googlenature
In a recent conference promoting not only their latest gizmos but their company's animating vision as well, Google executives declared they were working toward a future in which technology "disappears," "fades into the background," becomes more "intuitive and anticipatory." Commenting on this apparently "bizarre mission for a tech company," Bianca Bosker warns that their genial and enthusiastic promotional language masks Google's aspiration to omnipresence via invisibility, an effort to render us dependent and uncritical of their prevalence through its marketing as easy, intuitive, companionable.
Backing into Eden: Chapter 2 – The Beasts of the Field
Occasionally during meetings one of my staff – an avid birder – will elbow me and I’ll look up and glimpse a bald eagle. Each time, I am in awe. I live in Washington State, which is home to a plethora of eagles, where pods of Orca ply the waters near the San Juan Islands, and where roads are sometimes blocked by herds of elk.
Energy Update: An Environmental Engineer's 2030 Forecast
In this month's Report on Business Magazine, a supplement that comes with The Globe and Mail, one of Canada's national newspapers, Stanford University's Mark Jacobson provides a best case scenario
Peter Thiel Against Hollywood Against "The Future"
According to The Hollywood Reporter, celebrity tech CEO Peter Thiel is upset that movies like The Matrix and Avatar make technological innovation seem "destructive and dysfunctional."
Crowdsourcing to Hunt for Power Plants
A team of researchers are asking the public to help them locate and count all the sources of CO2 coming from power plants on the planet.
UK Scientists Create A New Wheat Strain Through Embryology Not Genetic Manipulation
Initial results from a selective breeding program at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany based in Cambridge in the UK, indicate the successful creation of a new super wheat.
Comments
Post new comment