Lockheed Martin testing its own inflatable module design
Lockheed Martin recently successfully completed a test of its own inflatable module design, conceived in this case not as a full-scale module but as an airlock for ingress and egress from a space station.
In the Aug. 14 test, the inflatable airlock design was put through multiple, gas-in/gas-out cycles — essentially inflations and deflations with enough nitrogen gas to pressurize the airlock to the point it becomes as rigid as steel — to assess the extent to which its Vectran material strains over time, a process called creep. Knowing how creep affects a Vectran structure will allow Lockheed Martin to properly assess its operational life potential. Test engineers here have also put subscale softgoods habitat designs to the test, purposely bursting them to spotlight their robust nature and determine their pressure thresholds.
With the addition of Lockheed Martin, there are now at least four companies building inflatable modules for sale to space station companies. Sierra Space has the most developed module design, but a company in India recently announced it will build and sell its own. In addition, an American startup dubbed Max Space is building its own test module and hopes to launch next year.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Lockheed Martin recently successfully completed a test of its own inflatable module design, conceived in this case not as a full-scale module but as an airlock for ingress and egress from a space station.
In the Aug. 14 test, the inflatable airlock design was put through multiple, gas-in/gas-out cycles — essentially inflations and deflations with enough nitrogen gas to pressurize the airlock to the point it becomes as rigid as steel — to assess the extent to which its Vectran material strains over time, a process called creep. Knowing how creep affects a Vectran structure will allow Lockheed Martin to properly assess its operational life potential. Test engineers here have also put subscale softgoods habitat designs to the test, purposely bursting them to spotlight their robust nature and determine their pressure thresholds.
With the addition of Lockheed Martin, there are now at least four companies building inflatable modules for sale to space station companies. Sierra Space has the most developed module design, but a company in India recently announced it will build and sell its own. In addition, an American startup dubbed Max Space is building its own test module and hopes to launch next year.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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