During a test, Sierra Space’s so-called Large Integrated Flexible Environment burst.
The company Sierra Space is working on a space station module that is inflatable. As was announced on Monday (January 22nd), the construction could be completed by 2030 fly into space.
The Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE) of has been subjected to a series of “burst tests” in which air is intentionally pumped into the structure until it fails and eventually bursts apart like a balloon. As the company said in a statement Space.com writes, the explosion had a magnitude of “164 sticks of dynamite” had.
The explosion itself is in the video ab Minute 5:55 to see.
In this test, the results exceeded NASA’s safety requirements by 27 percent. It held a pressure of 77 PSI (Pounds Per Square Inch) statt, was 5,3 Bar corresponds.
LIFE is 6,2 Meter high and has a diameter of 8,3 Metersaid Sierra Space. 3 of these modules could be the size of the in space International Space Station ISS surpass. But larger variants are already planned.
An inflatable module for a space station would have the obvious advantage of extremely compact can be placed into orbit before it is inflated to its final size. Challenges are primarily external influences such as The micrometeorite and radiationwhich should be repelled or shielded by the construction.
➤ Read more: Planned ISS crash costs $1 billion
LIFE is not the only inflatable module for space stations. Bigelow Aerospace has with that B330module a similar development. NASA is also involved TransHab constructed an early concept for an inflatable living module for astronauts on the way to Mars.
Orbital Reef
The LIFE module was developed for the concept of Orbital Reef Space station developed. This is a project by Sierra Space and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. This concept was presented in October 2021 and aims to establish a versatile commercial space complex in low Earth orbit (LEO).
It is one of several proposals whose development is being funded in part by NASA. The goal is to develop a successor to the ISS.
2024-01-23 14:11:06
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