y'all may have seen this......

http://www.space.com/news/businessmonday_040524.html

Alan Patrick wrote:
>
> y'all may have seen this......
>
> http://www.space.com/news/businessmonday_040524.html
>

I find an interesting juxtaposition in the fact that the first article
after inflatable space habitats is titled, "Space Debris Fills
Not-So-Friendly Skies."

Steve

>y'all may have seen this......
>
>http://www.space.com/news/businessmonday_040524.html

I've been interested to follow Bigelow's progress. By being the first in
the market with a privately-built hab, he could change future space
settlement plans dramatically, if his early work succeeds.

I'd like to ask some of you engineering and MBA types to consider some
applications of structures made from strings of Bigelow habs. Say, for
example, a solar power satellite company assigns you to figure out how many
inflatable habs it would take to put together a crew quarters for on-orbit
SPS assembly and maintenance. How would they be arranged for different crew
size and workspace assumptions? How small a torus is practical, and how
many Bigelow habs would be necessary to build it?

Or say that Marriott Corp. hires you to plan the first orbital hotel, and
asks for cost/guest assuming 3-day stays, so they can calculate a
competitive tour package price. What are the economies of scale? What's
the minimum size necessary to rotate the hotel for artificial gravity, and
can the Bigelow habs handle the stresses of rotation? What would be the
limitations on employees' stays in space, since transporting employees
to/from raises the cost per launch?

Any takers?

BradW

> I'd like to ask some of you engineering and MBA types to consider some
> applications of structures made from strings of Bigelow habs.

I have both, so lets see.....

> Say, for
> example, a solar power satellite company assigns you to figure out how
many
> inflatable habs it would take to put together a crew quarters for on-orbit
> SPS assembly and maintenance.

Say 10 people needed FTE, say 30m3 each, say 3x that for all stuff needed up
there - c 1000m3, if a cylinder thats about 4m radius, 20m length.

> How would they be arranged for different crew
> size and workspace assumptions? How small a torus is practical, and how
> many Bigelow habs would be necessary to build it?

I think for such a small thing a Cylinder is best to start building.

The smallest Torus, assuming you want stable 1G on teh outer rim, has to be
c 1km radius to rotate at 1 rpm (apparently the highest you can go before
some people get motion sickness)

You'd probably have the Bigelow cylinder as one of the parts of the Torus
and carry on inflating more until you had enough to join them up and then
still keep on breaking into the existing torus with new inflatables till you
got the desired size. Maybe it would be done around some form of exo or indo
skeleton with say a shuttle tube in it?

From: Alan Patrick [mailto:a.patrick@...]

"The smallest Torus, assuming you want stable 1G on teh outer rim, has to be
c 1km radius to rotate at 1 rpm (apparently the highest you can go before
some people get motion sickness)"

Everything I've seen says that the small percentage of folks who do get sick
will adapt within a day or two, with the rotation as high as 4 rpm. Past
that, it takes longer for some to adapt, and a few don't seem to be able to
get used to the spin. So... a little testing, a little pre-flight training,
and those first habitats can be spun faster, and therefore built a lot
smaller/cheaper.

Dave