This is the BA 330, a space capsule designed by Bigelow Aerospace in Las Vegas Nevada. These things are amazing proof that American Companies can still innovate.
Each one can act as an independent space station or they can be hooked together like some anime robot into a Mega Station.
Six people can live in just one of them. Put a bunch of them together and we’ve got the start of some serious Sci-Fi style Space Hub.
Here’s the really cool part, they’re inflatable. Like Space Balloons with super strong walls. This lets us keep the weight down and thus keep the cost down.
Bigelow Aerospace has already launched and tested small sized proto-types and has these full size beauties ready to go.
So what’s the hold up? They don’t have a rocket to launch them on. Fortunately they’re working with other private space companies to get these techno marshmallows up in orbit.
The time frame looks like we’re just a couple years out from rocket time. In all likelihood we’re 15-20 years before we start to see the real beginnings of a Space Tourist industry and the cost is bound to keep that at a minimum indefinitely.
But when I win the lotto you can bet I’ll be booking space.
