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The inflatable structures


Kimmo Huosionmaa

How to find, if some company has something to do with restricted productions? This is the question when we are trying to think about the military equipment and government secrecy. One thing is simple to look about information about that company from Google, and then try to find out the connection of the products of that company to something, what is secret.

One very interesting company is the Bigelow Aerospace corporation, what we can find from Google. This company makes inflatable structures for spacecraft and one of its balloon modules have been in use at the International Space Station what is known as ISS. This thing makes us think, what kind of products this corporation makes. And the thing, what makes me think about the role of this corporation in the space program, and it's connections to other defense industry producers is that one balloon module would not make the company, what is operating with the international space station.

Then we must realize, that the corporation might have the ability to produce gas sections for very high flying airships. Those high flying airships are operating on the edge of space, and they can be manned or unmanned. Those systems can operate passively like ECHO-satellites operated in the early 1960s. But they can operate also with a very highly sophisticated electronic equipment as the civil and military communications and electronic intelligence missions.

But they can also take small space rockets to the outer atmosphere and shoot satellites to the orbiter, by using Pegasus or if those airships are bigger, they can deliver also Minotaur rockets. In fact, if those airships are the size of Hindenburg, they can be used to launch Delta rockets from airborne.

I have written about this thing many times before, but this kind of technology makes possible to create large structures, what can launch to space by using conventional rockets. Those very high flying airships have still one theoretical use. If those airships would be delivered to the orbiter by using rocket, and then it can be blown to the shape.

And that kind of thing makes possible to make extremely large structures like manned space stations to the orbiter and far away from Earth. If those light structures would cover with gold and water layer, what is between two-layer structure, will that make very good protection against radiation, that comes from the Sun. And the outer layer must be covered with carbon fiber plates and the entrance of the station goes thru the airlock, what allows to deny the lack of oxygen.

Bigelow Aerospace

http://bigelowaerospace.com/


Lockheed-Martin High altitude airship concept

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DgCvfxLCoY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmOsjFR-tbU

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