Room with a view: The first inflatable habitat in space

Room with a view: The first inflatable habitat in space

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Expandable habitat from Bigelow Aerospace being lifted into Dragon’s trunk for a ride to the space station.; Credit: SpaceX

Over the weekend, a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship delivered the first inflatable habitat to the International Space Station.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYmQQn_ZSys&nohtml5=False

Once inflated, it’s expected to be the size of a small bedroom. It will be studied for a few years without any humans inside, but it’s hoped that blow up spaces like this could be used to house astronauts on planets like Mars in the future. It’s called the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module or BEAM for short. For more on this, we Bruce Betts, Director of Science and Technology for the Planetary Society, joined the show in studio to discuss.

To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.