Bigelow`s inflatable space habitat hammering a space hotel for a few years now. Mostly the prototype is ready for launch. SpaceX is ready to launch a resupply mission to international space station, on April 8.
The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) will be folded for its launch and fully inflated once its properly connected some station nodes, essentially creating a new room on the ISS. SpaceX dragon capsule will dock the ISS a couple days after launch. From Mid-April the station`s robotic arm will struck the Beam from the trunk of Dragon and the infaltable module will be moved to note 3 on ISS.
Inflatable modules are attractive option for space habitats in the perspective of a mass and volume perspective. In their configuration they are more compact and potentially much lighter than any other alternatives. They could be very easier to fit into a launch vehicles and even more cheaper to launch for these reasons.
Robert Bigelow made his fortune from his ownership of the budget suites of America, at Bigelow Aerospace which was founded over 15 years ago. After congress cancelled their expandable habitat project known as Transhab in 2000, Bigelow originally licensed inflatable habitat technology from NASA.
The concept of this space-based inflatables takes back to early 60`s. However NASA`s first communications satellite Echo 1, is a Spacecraft based on balloon design. Materials like Rubber, simply would not cut it for crewed missions at the time of inflatable technology while working for satellites. Recently these advanced materials have made human rated inflatable habitats available.
These space hotels are made by Bigelow Aerospace for tourists who would be interested to stay back in space for any further palns. This company has successfully launched the previous modules like Genesis 1 and agenesis 2 in 2007 and 2016 which are still in orbit today. The company signed a contract of $71.8 with NASA which will launch the BEAM to ISS on 8th April. The contract was signed with the agency back in 2013.