Genesis 1 checking the surf at Baja California (click all images to enlarge).
Fly your stuff! Genesis 2 offered 'commons' to join at a small fee.
Dnepr Sherpa made it all possible - with financial assistance by Robert. The launch of Genesis 1 marked the first commercial launch ever to take place at the ISC Kosmotras Space and Missile Complex near Yasny. It also epresented the first launch of a single, large payload aboard the Dnepr.
Base camp: mission control at Bigelow Aerospace in Las Vegas, Nevada.
People will enter Sundancer (based on scrubbed NASA project TransHab) through airlocks into a shirtsleeve environment. Image of TransHab courtesy of NASA. (Click to enlarge).
Howard Hughes look-alike, eccentric visionary and self-made millionaire, Robert Bigelow. Image by ExplorersWeb.
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Human space exploration update: Bigelow's C1 and C2 set
Posted: Feb 23, 2009 07:55 pm EST
(Pythom.com/by Tina Sjogren) Robert Bigelow set up his goal to go to space already as a kid. To get the money needed, he went straight into real estate and built the Las Vegas hotel chain Budget Suites of America. By 1999 Bigelow had made a fortune, and was investing millions into UFO and paranormal research.
In 2006, Genesis I kicked off Bigelow's biggest journey into space yet. She was the first expandable space habitat on orbit and at only a few million bucks - the cheapest all-inclusive ever in the world of aerospace. The 30-ft space tent blew up like a balloon when it reached orbit and can be seen from Earth.
One year later, Bigelow repeated. Genesis II was launched from the Kosmotras Space and Missile Complex near the town of Yasny on June 28, 2007. Both camps now serve as testing beds for the next project - the Sundancer - a full-scale, crewed, commercial orbital space complex.
Inside the tent
Magnetic torque rods, GPS and sun sensors and a reaction-wheel system provide attitude control and stabilization, as the space-tents have no propulsion of their own.
Several dozens of articulated cameras with dual FireWire and Ethernet interfaces, as well as a wireless boom camera provide interior and exterior shots. Space-to-ground communications of data are provided by UHF, VHF and S-band antennas. In addition to sat pics, Genesis 2 also provided the world's first in-orbit image projection system.
The Sherpas
The private space race is shifting into high gear and rockets are key. Russia has been using converted ballistic missiles to launch satellites into orbit since 1999. After The Planetary Society lost its Solar Sail on a Russian Volna a few years back, new plans have included the Soyuz and the Kosmos-3M - a rocket built for small commercial and scientific launches.
On the other side of the pond, American Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos had a successful launch of Goddard, and South African PayPal founder Elon Musk has done more than well with his Falcon (see previous story).
Bigelow in fact set up an American Space Prize some years ago, offering $50 million to the first American-built, privately funded rocket/spacecraft that can send five people into orbit, dock with a Bigelow Aerospace habitat and stay there for 6 months. The deadline for the Prize is set for January 10, 2010.
Elon Musk is pretty confident he is Bigelow's man: "SpaceX's Falcon 9 launcher is scheduled to carry a payload for Bigelow Aerospace in 2009 or 2010," Elon said last year, "and Bigelow's vision of a system of orbiting space habitats serve as a promising destination for SpaceX's Dragon crewed spacecraft."
In the meantime the can-do inventor/entrepreneur Robert Bigelow helped set up ISC Kosmotras Space and Missile Complex in Russia, finding a more peaceful use for the highly reliable rocket Dnepr: a converted IBM (intercontinental nuclear carrier) formerly known as "Satan."
The Sundancer
The manned space-hab Sundancer is planned for launch early in the next decade. Agreement has been reached with Aerojet (involved in Phoenix landing on Mars using rockets alone) to supply the propulsion system for the aft end, that will handle rendezvous and docking, as well as controlled deorbit. The forward-end propulsion (for float control) is to be provided by Orion Propulsion, Inc.
Sundancer will support a crew of up to three and eventually provide the backbone for the first commercial space station.
The money
Bigelow figures that he could charge $8 million per ticket and $1 million per night for travelers using his facility when the time is ripe. But there is a lot of more money to be made.
Although artificial (the real deal is achieved only 4 million miles from earth), a microgravity environment accomplished on the space stations by their constant free fall offers tremendous advantage in commercial and industrial research/manufacturing.
Perfect crystal formations provide purer chemicals and medicals; gravity-free sedimentation and airflow through liquids offer stronger materials. Overall the conditions of weightlessness for molding, combustion, mixing of 'unmixables' etc can improve just about everything from plastic to steel - not to mention cleaner fuels and better energy consumption on earth.
Today, companies are waiting in long lines for their experiments to be launched to ISS onboard the ever-delayed/scrubbed NASA shuttles. Even at the current sky-high launch rates, demand far outweighs supply. Already a Howard Hughes look-alike; if he plays his cards right Nevada resident Robert Bigelow could well watch his visionary childhood dream make him among the wealthiest men in modern time.
Bigelow's inflatable Space Station is among the most interesting private space projects right now. Formerly known as the TransHab inflatable space station the original concept was created by NASA in 1997 but abruptly cancelled in 2000, possibly for political reasons. Robert bought the entire setup and brought the project to life.
An inflatable station weighs much less than a regular one, and offers more space. After a rocket fires the station into space, explosive bolts inflate the structure and release breathable air. Power comes from solar panels. People will enter through airlocks into a shirtsleeve environment and a docked rocket engine will allow the station to maneuver within Earth’s orbit or even leave it for a trip to the moon. Robert is betting 500 million of his own money on the project (he has spent about a third so far). If it works out, the Las Vegas Budget suites owner will build a chain...on the Moon, Mars - and beyond.
A self-made man, Bigelow builds his space hotel the way he runs his hotels and real estate: hire the best people, use the best materials, and stay on time and on budget, using off-the-shelf components whenever possible. Home base is a 50-acre facility at the outskirts of Las Vegas; according to PopularScience.com it's guarded by men wearing black shoulder patches, featuring an oval-eyed alien face outlined in silver and gold.
Bigelow, a low tech guy who until a few years back never sent an e-mail, runs his space plant on a tight leash controlling everything, watching the work of the machinists like a hawk and signing off on all of his engineers’ designs. When engineers theorize about parts, Robert says, "Build it. Let’s see what it does."
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