Question of the Day: Private Space Stations

Posted
by
Doug Messier
on March 9, 2010, at 11:04 am
in News
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Comments: 2 responses
2 Comments

Artist's conception of the private Excalibur Almaz space station in orbit. (Credit: Excalibur Almaz)

There are at least three private space stations in the works:

  • Bigelow Sundancer
  • Excalibur Almaz
  • Galactic Suite

Which of these projects will be most successful? And why?

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  • Brian Koester

    While Almaz has interesting technology — effectively reusing old Soviet Tech and keeping it simple – I believe the winner will ultimately be…….

    Bigelow.

    They have the NASA stamp of approval in that their tech is licensed from NASA and the development efforts of Transhab. While that may not mean a lot in the private sector, in the short term it could provide the edge they need in order to get NASA money in addition to their private sector efforts – say for example NASA buys a habitation module to try out on the ISS.

    NASA cannot very well turn their noses up at the tech when money is tight, nor can they invoke (consciously or unconsciously) the NIH syndrom (Not Invented here).

    The reason that Bigelow will be sucessful in the private space efforts and goverment space efforts is that they have taken NASA’s excellent ground work and added a private sector mindset for cost savings and a commitent to scientific and operational excellence from what I have read and heard of their efforts.

    Bigelow will stand out in 5-10-30 years time as the first example of what the private sector could do standing on the shoulders of giants.

    Besides their ballistic tests show that their module is more rugged and will not vent vs the ISS aluminum construction in the event of a balistic impact…..

    Finally the question isnt Private/SpaceX/Sundancer/Virgin VS. NASA/Constellation/Ares/Orion

    It is PRIVATE+NASA+EELV PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS

  • Michael Turner

    Galactic Suite has already been the most successul by the all-important measure of hype/substance ratio.

    Last I checked, Bigelow was aiming at selling space stations to countries that wanted their own. I haven’t figured out which countries he’s talking about. ISS remains under-occupied.

    Excalibur Almaz is proven hardware (several manned missions, retrofitted later for unmanned reconnaissance). They are aimed (in part) at a proven market: the millionaut/billionaut segment. If your measure of success is getting there first, with a paying private sector customer, my bet is on Excalibur Almaz.