Our Own Personal Space Station

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(Timestamps for video highlights below)

Robert Bigelow

Owner of Bigelow Aerospace, is an entrepreneur with a great vision, and money to burn. He has had great success with his chain of hotels called Budget Suites of America, and now is bringing his business acumen to space. 

So what is he doing for space?

With all of his own money, he has been building the future of space stations as we know it. NASA originally came up with the idea of building inflatable habitats, but for whatever reason had to abandon the program. Mr. Bigelow saw that NASA could not do it, so he decided he would do it. On July 12, 2006, Bigelow Aerospace launched Genesis 1 , a sub-scale model of their inflatable habitat aboard a rocket in Russia. He would be the first to test whether or not the inflatable space station idea could work. IT DID! He launched another similar habitat on June 28, 2007 he called Genesis 2, which although identical, had a lot more cameras, sensors, and some other fun stuff. These space stations are still in space right now! Everyday they collect more data that proves they can be successful building a full scale version of their space station, which would easily rival the International Space Station.

What is the coolest part of this whole story?

They will soon be able to prove their inflatable habitat is bigger, safer, and can be launched into space for much cheaper than anybody has been able to do. As the price drops dramatically for space travel (which is happening), wouldn't it be nice to be able to go to space and visit somewhere? How about your own personal space station? That is amazing to think. It is not far off thinking to see civilians will be in space, and they will need a place to stay. One day, Virgin Galactic may be able to launch you up to space, and put you in your own personal Bigelow habitat. 

The space stations may be flying over you right now! Click here to track where they are.

-Video Highlight Timestamps-

*This is a video taken at the Space Frontier Conference back in 2006, a week after after the had launched Genesis 1.  

1:00 Intro video (*cue ride of the MIDI valkyries...)

7:00 Introductory remarks by Rick Tumlinson.

9:18 Robert Bigelow Introductory remarks.

14:13 Comments about politics, and what it takes to be a successful new space business.

16:08 What characterizes the new space movement?

19:00 What do they hope to accomplish with their spacestation program?

21:15 What rockets have they been using to launch their stations?

21:50 Talks about their public outreach effort and how it will grow.

24:00 "We hope to promote a significant expansion of professional astronauts worldwide." *awesome...*

25:40 Why build space stations now?

28:49 After they launch their first full scale station, what happens next?

31:02 "In our third year of operation, we estimate that we will need 20 launches. We need 16 launches for people, and 4 launches for cargo." 33:15 "Let's say you have a 65 million dollar launch. Well, thats a 1,300,000,000 dollars for 20 launches, so you are talking about some substantial bucks here." 

34:33 Comments on space tourism.

38:09 Feelings after Genesis 1 flight.

41:42 Mr. Bigelow reads a paper on what happened on the day of launch by Jay Ingham.

Want more on Bigelow Aerospace? Here is a great article by popsci.com

What do you think? let me know by leaving a comment! =)

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