Update 5-7-16: they just did it again during a satellite launch. Successful launch, plus successful landing of the first stage on a barge out in the ocean. Many congratulations, Spacex!
Congratulations to
Spacex on the recent launch to the ISS. There's a triple whammy of good
stuff here: (1) delivery of over 3 tons of stuff in a returnable and
reusable capsule, (2) successful landing of the first stage booster on a
barge in the ocean, with intent to reuse and re-fly, and (3)
delivery of the first inflatable module for the ISS.
Being able to send
stuff home from the ISS is important, as not everything needing to come
back is waste to be burned up on reentry. Spacex uniquely offers that
capability with its cargo Dragon capsule. There's very limited weight and
space available for any returning cargo in the Russian capsules that currently
carry crews to and from the station.
Landing and reusing
booster stages is a big step along the way to less expensive space
travel. Once space vehicles are as reusable as airplanes, the fare
to orbit ought to look more like airfares here at home. Not just
millionaires and billionaires and governments will be able to go. It will
still be awhile before this becomes reality: doing it with spacecraft is
tougher than was doing it with airplanes.
Both of those are
fairly well-known benefits of this accomplishment. The inflatable station
module is perhaps not so well-known. The Bigelow BEAM module that Spacex
delivered to ISS is a small demonstrator for a larger module that Bigelow is
developing: its B-330.
The B-330 is as big as
any ISS module, once inflated. Yet it is rather compact for the
ride up. This technology offers a practical path to assemble large stations
or vehicles in orbit by docking modules (which is how we built ISS), but
without requiring such large and expensive super-rockets to launch them.
That's a major cost savings, even without reusable boosters.
This module assembly
idea is actually the real prerequisite for practical travel beyond the
moon. The moon is but 3 days away: missions to it are but 2 or 3
weeks long, and astronauts can tolerate riding in a cramped capsule that
long in weightlessness. For such short voyages there are no microgravity
disease penalties. Short term, even mediocre food is
well-tolerated, too.
To Mars or anywhere
else beyond the moon, voyages are measured in months or years, and
we already know that we can fight-off serious microgravity diseases for only about
a year or so. Assembling a larger vehicle from inflatable modules and
propulsion stages allows us to spin the vehicle for artificial gravity.
Besides the obvious
health benefits for the crew, spin gravity enables simpler, more
familiar toilets, a proper bath or shower, conventional laundry,
and free-surface conventional cooking (which in turn allows the use of
fresh and frozen foods).
Frozen foods last a
lot longer than any of the freeze-dried meals used in weightlessness now.
Plus, they taste better, and can also serve as radiation shielding,
along with the water and the wastewater in the life support
equipment. Good food plus a big living space are crucial for crew sanity
long-term. There's no real question about that.
Space for living,
better food, and no microgravity diseases: these lead to
healthy, well-adjusted crews for really long voyages. Long term,
it is my opinion that the inflatable module that could make a huge
difference for the true exploration of our solar system.
It has been 44 years
since astronauts last left Earth orbit. What we see just starting to
materialize on this mission to ISS could be the means we need to fly
successfully far beyond the moon, and also part of the means by which to
afford the trip.
There's no telling
what we will eventually find "out there". But the last 500
years of exploring down here on Earth says that going and looking have always
eventually paid off.
Again,
congratulations to Spacex on a job well done. And to Bigelow for
their first demonstrator inflatable at ISS.
