Amazing Stories 88th Anniversary Issue by 88th Anniversary Issue (mobi)

Author:88th Anniversary Issue (mobi)
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: michael j. sullivan, douglas smith, joseph m. whelan, amazing stoires, john purcell, jack clemons, gwen whiting, steven m. long, ira nayman duncan long ricky l. brown, michael a. burstein, nina munteau, felicity savage, r.k. troughton
Publisher: The Experimenter Publishing Company
Published: 2014-08-20T04:00:00+00:00

Hotels in Space

(A computer generated cutaway model of NASA’s once-planned Transhab Module with crew members inside. This design inspired Bigelow Aerospace’s current modular efforts. Courtesy of NASA.)

While the race to develop spaceflight is on, other companies are investing in a different aspect of travel: where future spacewalkers will stay when they get there. Bigelow Aerospace has set its mission to design affordable space habitats for both commercial clients and national space agencies. These habitats use an inflatable design partially inspired by NASA’s TransHab, originally designed for use on Mars or the Moon. In 2013, NASA contracted one of Bigelow’s modules, the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), for use on the International Space Station. Other unmanned stations have also been placed in orbit by the company.

Efforts to create habitats aren’t the only goal on Bigelow’s agenda. The aerospace company has been pressing the United States government for policy review of lunar property rights. Though there are no present plans to establish a lunar base from Bigelow, it is a long-term goal for the company. A report created by Bigelow last year on commercial lunar architectures states that “without property rights, any plan to engage the private sector in long-term beyond LEO activities will ultimately fail.”

Is this true? There are many factors to consider in opening the door to granting lunar property rights, among them the question of international relations. Who, after all, has the rights to the Moon? Does the United States need to colonize moons and other planets to establish a hold on what industries and practices can be conducted in other parts of the universe? Should that be an effort spearheaded not by governments but by private interests? These are all questions that policymakers are grappling with as more corporations become involved with planning future offworld ventures.

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