Bigelow Current Updates Thread....

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docm

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It appears Bigelow has given Honeybee Robotics the contract for building solar panel deployment hardware for their modules.

Link....

Deployment & Positioning

Solar Array Deployment System


Images of the Solar Array Deployment System are currently restricted.

Bigelow Aerospace contracted Honeybee Robotics to develop a preliminary design for a solar array deployment system for their low-cost, low earth orbit space station in development for the commercial sector. Bigelow’s unique vision is to create a flexible architecture for spacecraft utilizing unfolding and inflatable structures for manned and unmanned missions.

Honeybee Robotics designed forward- and aft deployment mechanisms for Bigelow’s Genesis solar array. The mechanism deployed 5 solar panels from a stacked configuration to a flat configuration, at which point the deployed array had to be at a predetermined angle to the spacecraft. Only one actuator was used in the mechanism to accomplish this task. The forward array, the larger of the two, could expand from a stowed height of less than 8 inches to a deployed height of approximately 115 inches. The deployment hardware was to weigh less than 5lbs. and incorporate a latching mechanism to prevent closing once the solar array was deployed. The design also allowed for integration of an external camera mounted on the top-most of the five panels. Further development continues at Bigelow Aerospace.

Deploy package
solar_array_1.jpg


Array drive
solar_array_drive.gif


Solar hinge
solar_hinge_1.jpg
 
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MeteorWayne

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docm":9oil167l said:
It appears Bigelow has given Honeybee Robotics the contract for building solar panel deployment hardware for their modules.

That be sweet honey! :lol: :roll: :ugeek:
 
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Invalid

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Bigelow Aerospace

Bigelow Aerospace owns the TransHab patent since they bought it from space right?

Does that mean that no other company/space program can use that tech to make a space station?

Isn't that unfair then that they only get that technology?

If its true then I would have rather NASA used it then release the tech for all to use. I don't really agree with private space programs if they do this...
 
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spacecadet11

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Re: Bigelow Aerospace

If you want to know what I think....If I invent a better mouse trap..no one on planet earth is entitled to "my" invention at all in the first place!
If I want to sell my "idea" or patent...that is "my" buisness...what makes anyone on Earth believe that they are entitled to my new mouse trap...if you want a better mouse trap....GO AND INVENT YOUR OWN!
Bye
SC
 
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Boris_Badenov

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I haven't heard anything from Bigelow lately. Has anybody else?
 
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js117

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Re: Bigelow Aerospace

This should be merged with the other Bigelow areospace.
 
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Boris_Badenov

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Bigelow Aerospace Update
I also have a design for a “Big Bertha” spacecraft for NASA’s Ares 5. We can create a module that has twice the volume of the entire international space station. One module alone could have 2,100 cubic meters of volume. We’re volume productive, not mass concentrated. We produce many times the volume comparable to another volume that’s a metal structure. :shock:
 
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Gravity_Ray

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Thanks for the update Boris, I also had not heard much from them lately either. I did read somewhere (I'll try and find it) that the Russians really raked him over the coals by trying to charge him too much, and like he said US government is not making it easy to work with the Russians either due to the dust up they had over the missile defence shield over Europe. So its up to Falcon 9 and Saturn I guess. Go Falcon!

I really like him, he is a doer, not a talker.
 
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Gravity_Ray

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I wonder if that is a typo. The BA330 is 330 cm and that is their biggest module... So how do you go from 330 to 2100? 2100cm is 7 times large than an average american home.
 
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Boris_Badenov

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I don't think it's a typo, as he's talking about launching it on an Ares 5 size vehicle.
I did a few quick & dirty numbers to give a hab that size a little scale. 125 feet in length, 25 feet tall & 25 feet wide.
 
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Gravity_Ray

Guest
Boris_Badenov":3mipooa9 said:
I don't think it's a typo, as he's talking about launching it on an Ares 5 size vehicle.
I did a few quick & dirty numbers to give a hab that size a little scale. 125 feet in length, 25 feet tall & 25 feet wide.

:shock:

I fully expect the emperor and a squad of storm troopers to come marching out of that thing...
 
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Boris_Badenov

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If a BA-330 can accommodate 7 crew, this behemoth will be pushing life support for nearly 50. That'd be quite a good sized crew.
 
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Boris_Badenov

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I refined my figures a little bit.
8 meters x 8 meters x 32.5 meters (about 24 feet x 24 feet x 105 feet) nearly gets you 2100 cu in this configuration.
skywalker-hotel-bigelow-aerospace.jpg
 
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Boris_Badenov

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In this configuration, at about 45 feet tall & 40 feet in diameter you get 2100 cu.
(this one is a BA-330 module at 44' high x 22' diameter, exterior dimensions)
transhab.jpg
 
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Gravity_Ray

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You can take just one of these monsters and just land it in a crater on the Moon, push some regolith on it, and presto bingo, you have a Moon base with one flight.
 
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Woggles

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Wow what great Idea to have these as lunar bases. Maybe we well get there sooner then later!!
 
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docm

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Try this one, then look on page 4 of this thread for how they'd land a lunar base made of BA-330's fully assembled

lunarhab2640.jpg
 
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Woggles

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That is really cool. Thanks docm !! What Apollo mission is that shot from? Looks like Apollo 15? Even has their foot print in the shot.
 
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Astro_Robert

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An earlier poster mentioned something about rights to some of the technology. Government agencies (Like DARPA for instance) often use specific language for granting such rights to commercial companies. Basically the gonvernment agency grants commercial rights to a technology to a commercial company so long as that company makes progress towards commercializing it in the marketplace, otherwise the agency reserves "March in data rights" to retake the technology and sell it to someone else for commercialization.

It sounds complicated but it amounts to making the technology available. The government uses it for its own purposes and allows commercial companies to profit from it for commercial purposes as long as it is actually used and not shelved to protect some other technology. In the even a company tries to shelve a technology or otherwise financially collapses and is unable to commercialize a technology, the agency can us the march in feature to re-sell a given technology to encourage its commercialization.

Under such a clause if Big Bertha Aeorspace buys a technology and 'pretends' to commercialize it but really stalls to protect their proprietary outdated tech, eventually the agency can strip Big Bertha Aero of the rights and re-sell them to Little Upstart Aerospace and hope he can do better. Since it appears that Bigelow is making a serious effort to proceed, even if they are subject to such a clause, they should be allowed to make their effort and profiy from these efforts for the incredible impact they may have in reducing required launch mass.
 
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Boris_Badenov

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A size comparison to the Senior Apartments I manage, attached to the Show Low Senior Center is possible also. (I've been playing with my tape measure recently ;) )
The outer row of East Wing of the apartments contains (in order from south to north); 2 community rooms, 2 laundry rooms (upstairs & downstairs), 1 single wide stairwell., 2 2 bedroom arartments, 6 1 bedroom apartments & 1 doublewide stairwell. Include in this 8 small storerooms 4 patios & 4 balconies.
skywalker-hotel-bigelow-aerospace.jpg
 
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Boris_Badenov

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This is an aerial photo of the neighborhood from the County Treasurers website.
The East Wing is the right hand building south of the blue border. The outer row I desribed would occupy the space from the roof peak to the right.
It would take approximately 8 Big Bertha modules to provide the same interior space as the 3 apartment wings & the Senior Center/Recreation area.
In a ring configuration this would be quite a massive complex.
Bigelow just might make this possible within the next 15 to 20 years.
7c0aa06b-b419-423f-a370-848df560a728.jpg
 
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