A Lunar Depot

What's going on?

Previously I introduced Bigelow Aerospace (BA) and expandable modules. 

To BA's credit they have two expandables in gradually declining orbit, the Genesis 1 launched July 12, 2006 and Genesis 2 launched June 28, 2007.  Bigelow BEAM was launched April 8, 2016 and attached to the ISS. On Dec. 4, 2017 a three-year contract with two options to extend for one additional year was made. SPACENEWS.COM said this on August 12, 2019.  BA has not made any data analysis received from Genesis public.  

Previously BA's website had various plans for much larger modules and a moon base - all projects except for tbe existing BEAM, and  B330 (previously BA330) have disappeared and a new "First Base" has been added.

BA's next endeavour was with NASA and the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM).  Looking at NASAs photo of beam shows it wasn't totally inflated.  Per Wikipedia BEAM inflation was "...thought to have been the result of the unanticipated 10-month delay in module inflation, which may have caused the fabric layers to stick
together".

Wikipedia on B330Per BSO the B330 will have a width of 6.7m (22 ft) by 16.88m (55.41ft) length inclusive of required electronics, propulsion, life support, docking systems and can house 6 crew members.

On October 17, 2017 NASASPACEFLIGHT reported a ULA/Bigelow Lunar Depot plan. More details of the Lunar Depot were out on the web but have since been removed. Also on that date ULA NEWS published "Bigelow Aerospace and United Launch Alliance Announce Agreement to Place a B330 Habitat in Low Lunar Orbit"..

The DEPOT orbit was expected to be lower than GATEWAY and support lunar surface operation.

As of April 24, 2020 no further information on this depot can be found on the web.

 

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