Private space company Bigelow Aerospace in cooperation with United Launch Alliance issued a statement, according to which plans to orbit the moon residential inflatable module by 2022.
The carrier rocket, which we plan to launch module will be developed by experts of United Launch Alliance, and the module itself B330 will make the company Bigelow Aerospace. This is supposed to be an inflatable compartment with a length of fourteen meters, and its diameter will be about seven metres. It is assumed that these compartment sizes can accommodate a crew of up to six people with the equipment needed for life and work.
First module will deliver into orbit for this purpose will prepare the rocket Vulcan 562. In Earth orbit, the module “cheat” and test, then send to him two more rockets with fuel to refuel the rocket, which then will deliver the module to the moon.
Bigelow Aerospace President Robert Bigelow said that the aim of the project is to demonstrate to the government how fast, efficient and not very expensive to expand the residential base in space. He hoped that these “inflatable” modules can be used in the future for Mars exploration, for example.
One of these deployable modules developed by Bigelow Aerospace, is already working on the ISS in the spring of 2016. Unplug the four-metre design plan the following, 2018.
On the orbit of the moon launch an inflatable living module
Vyacheslav Larionov