The private space company Bigelow Aerospace together with the United Launch Alliance published a statement, according to which it plans to launch a residential inflatable module into the Moon’s orbit by 2022.
The launch vehicle, which is planned to launch the module, will be developed by United Launch Alliance specialists, while the B330 module will be developed by Bigelow Aerospace. It is assumed that this will be an inflatable compartment with a length of fourteen meters, and its diameter will be about seven meters. It is assumed that a compartment of this size will be able to accommodate a crew of up to six people, together with the equipment necessary for life and work.
First, the module will be delivered to Earth orbit - for this purpose, the Vulcan 562 rocket will be specially prepared. The module will be “fooled” and tested in Earth orbit, and then two more missiles will be sent to it to refuel the launch vehicle, which then will deliver the module to the Moon.
Robert Bigelow, President of Bigelow Aerospace, said that the project’s goal was to demonstrate to the government how to deploy a residential base in space as quickly, as effectively and as cheaply as possible. He hopes that such "inflatable" modules can be used in the future, for the development of Mars, for example.
One of these deployable modules, developed by Bigelow Aerospace, has been working on the ISS since spring 2016. Undock the four-meter construction plan in the next, in 2018.
The article is based on materials .
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