The International Space Station is getting an inflatable spare room. The first-of-its-kind habitat built by Bigelow Aerospace weighs 3 000 pounds and is made of a Kevlar-like material to withstand space debris and radiation. It looks more like a giant propane gas tank than a kids’ moon bounce and will be attached to a port on the space station.

It will rocket into space in 2015 with the blessing of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), which this month awarded the firm a $17.8- million contract to demonstrate the technology.

Eventually, Las Vegas hotelier Robert Bigelow wants to build separate stations that might be used as research laboratories orbiting earth or to establish a permanent presence on the moon or Mars.

“Ultimately, he’s hoping to build hotels in low-earth orbit and have that be one of the up-and-coming space businesses – this will give him more credibility,” said Marco Caceres, a senior space analyst with Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia. “There’s a lot of people out there that say, ‘Oh c’mon, hotels in low-earth orbit – that’s a fantasy right?’ I believe he has the tools to do it.”

The challenge will be finding customers, Caceres said in a phone interview. Bigelow’s primary focus is on corporations and governments interested in developing astronaut programmes or doing research. Space tourism is secondary, and the company has tried to steer away from the space hotel label.

Nasa’s willingness to back the mission is a seal of approval, Bigelow Aerospace said in a press release scheduled for release. “We cannot think of a stronger endorsement,” the company said.

Bigelow, 68, and Nasa deputy administrator Lori Garver planned to discuss the mission during a press conference this month at the company’s Las Vegas headquarters.

The agreement is “a step forward in cutting-edge technology that can allow humans to thrive in space safely and affordably,” Garver said in a January 11 release announcing the contract.

Bigelow plans to introduce a standalone station that can accommodate as many as 12 people by 2016, the company said.

A flight to the planned Alpha Station would cost between $26.3-million and $36.8-million for a 60-day stay, “depending on the taxi selected”, according to the company.

Customers could lease a portion of the station for that time period for $25-million. They could even buy the naming rights to the entire station for a year for an additional $25-million.

Private Enterprise
The future of private space stations depends on businesses built by other companies. They include billionaire Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies, known as SpaceX, which in May 2012 became the first to dock a private cargo ship at the space station.

Another is Chicago-based Boeing, the federal government’s No 2 contractor.

Nasa, in August, awarded $1.11-billion in contracts to develop private spacecraft capable of transporting crew. The awards went to California-based SpaceX, Boeing, and Nevada-based Sierra Nevada Corp. The agency plans to begin flying astronauts in at least one of the vehicles in 2017.

“Bigelow needs the companies working on commercial transportation systems to develop those systems so Bigelow can be a customer and acquire flights,” Jeff Foust, a space and telecommunications analyst with Futron in Bethesda, Maryland, said in a phone interview.

“Expandable inflatable modules – that is their long-term goal, and to execute on those plans they need other companies to step forward with the ability to send people to and from them.”

Bigelow Aerospace’s expandable units are cheaper than metallic structures and are designed to take up less space in a rocket transporting equipment to the space station.

The first inflatable product designed to support crew will be launched in late 2015 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket made by SpaceX. The module, known as the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, will travel in the cargo hold of a Dragon spacecraft, also made by SpaceX, according to Bigelow.

Once the ship docks with the space station, astronauts will use a robotic arm to remove the product and connect it to a port, according to Bigelow Aerospace. Like the furniture sold by Ikea, it will need to be put together. The module will be filled with air so it can expand it to its full size: 4 m long and 3 m wide.

Two-Year Test
Plans call for the module to remain attached to the space station for about two years. During that time, astronauts will monitor the unit’s temperature, pressure, radiation and other data to test the tech- nology’s durability.

Hotelier Bigelow is the owner and president of Budget Suites of America, a closely held chain in Nevada, Arizona and Texas. He doesn’t reveal his net worth. He has committed about $500-million to his aerospace company, about half of which has been spent.

The space firm, founded in 1999, has about 75 full-time employees and has manufacturing and testing facilities on a 50-acre property in northern Las Vegas. It launched two prototypes in 2006 and 2007.

“The encouraging thing about the Bigelow effort is that it is fundamentally a commercially orientated, profit-driven endeavor,” said Chris Quilty, a senior vice-president at Raymond James & Associates in St Petersburg, Florida.

In addition to Robert Bigelow and SpaceX’s Musk, the commercial space industry has attracted several “well-heeled financial backers,” Quilty said, including Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, and Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin group.

Bezos created Kent, Washington-based Blue Origin in 2000. It won $22-million from NASA to design a spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts. Branson launched Virgin Galactic, which plans to enter the satellite launch business following its foray into space tourism.

“Clearly these are smart people who have developed what they think are well-grounded business models,” Quilty said. “But there is absolutely a degree of romanticism and higher calling involved in these types of investments.”