A reason to go to Mars

Building a "...50 ton thing in LEO with tethers..." is an interesting
prospect. I suspect that the ill-fated (that is, funding canceled) NASA
SpaceHab which Bigelow has resurrected as a space hotel would fit the
bill for this sort of prototyping.

Does anyone have any design info on what Bigelow is ultimately planning
to put into orbit?

I'm guessing that access to the living quarters of this sort of tethered
prototype would have to be by means of docking with a central hub and
then ascending (or descending, as it were) the tether in space suits or
a "space elevator".

This is an interesting "first step" in developing not only space
colonies, but also spaceships that may be able to get travelers to
their destination without loss of muscle and bone mass, depressed immune
systems and whatever other maladies exposure to long term zero-G
environments might produce.

One reason I like this concept is that it's do-able with existing (or in
development) technology.........Now if we could only get our hands on a
part of that 700 Billion that Wall Street is getting.......
Chris

>
> --- In spacesettlers, "Marcel" wrote:
>
.......... And before we invest in a large rotating simulated