Explosive sounds come regularly enough from Huntsville’s Redstone Arsenal that locals look that direction and nod at every boom. Usually, the cause is a test at one of the Army’s ranges or, possibly, training by other base tenants like the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center also gets in on the boom business as shown in footage released this week by its partner commercial space company Sierra Space. The company is developing an “inflatable space habitation module” that expands with breathable air to the size of a three-story apartment building. Astronauts could live and work there in low-Earth orbit or on the surface of the moon and Mars. That development work is being done at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA has “strict safety certification requirements” for space inflatables so commercial space company Sierra Space recently needed to explode a scale inflatable model in an “ultimate burst pressure” test. The goal was proving the company’s “LIFE habitat” design could meet NASA’s requirement of holding together at a minimum 180 pounds per square inch of pressure.
LIFE stands for Large Integrated Flexible Environment – a modern way to build big living and working habitats for space. The inflatable had already survived one test, and the company made the second trial Nov. 15 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. It released the results this week saying that, sometimes, “record inflation is a good thing!”
“Due to the explosive nature of the test, the team placed the mini space habitat in the flame trench of the Saturn 1/1B test stand,” Sierra Space said. NASA tested rocket engines for the Apollo program at that historic landmark. Its “flame trench” is just what it sounds like” – a “u-shaped” metal trench designed to send rocket exhaust safely skyward.
The video and photographs show the explosion and what was left afterward. Sierra Nevada said it was a success with the test model reaching maximum pressure of 204 pounds per square inch before exploding.
“The LIFE habitat module is essential technology for enabling humans to safely and comfortably begin to develop new civilizations in space,” Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice said in a statement. “This project will service many different opportunities for the new space economy, and the results of this most recent test and milestone are testament to the progress our team is making to enable the next chapter in space commercialization.”
Full-scale tests of the habitat begin next year and NASA isn’t the only interested customer. Orbital Reef’s commercial space station, which is under development, will use the habitat as both living and payload space, the company says.
Sierra Space, based in Colorado, is also developing the Dream Chaser spacecraft to carry cargo and crew into orbit. It will begin a series of test missions in 2023 to the International Space Station, and the Huntsville International Airport has landing certification for at least one return touchdown of the spacecraft that resembles a small space shuttle.
