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Private rockets and expandable habitats to speed up the space race

by Josef Kafka

April saw several pieces of space history. The key event was the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on a supply mission to the International Space Station. Not only was the first stage launcher part of the rocket able to land itself automatically, on a small barge out at sea, saving money on reusable parts, but going all the way up was the first Bigelow Aerospace BEAM expandable habitat module into space. While NASA launch facilities were used, and the American space agency was in control of much of the mission, the use of so much private technology points to a commercial future for space exploration. 

As the rocket launched, the announcer called it a mission of "science for today, and deep space exploration for tomorrow." The Bigelow Expandable Habitat Module rode on the Dragon module to be attached to the International Space Station and tested by the crew. The company has a contract with NASA to develop future designs, with a larger B330 habitat (http://bigelowaerospace.com/b330/) on the drawing board to help support astronauts in space, offering 330 cubic metres of internal space for zero-gravity research as well as acting as a destination for future space tourists. The ultimate aim is for these habitats to be used for travel to the Moon and Mars, and support longer term landing missions. 

Bigelow's expandable habitats could hugely cut down on the weight of future space stations and increase the amount of living space for astronauts and explorers. With competition between SpaceX, Blue Origin's New Shepard (https://www.blueorigin.com/), another rocket with proven self-landing capabilities, and other launch systems competing with NASA, ESA and Russia's space programme to reduce the cost of getting payloads into space, the race for private space flight is hotting up. These technologies have now proven themselves and will be used for manned launches in coming years. 

All of these developments will help reduce the cost of getting into low Earth orbit, while NASA continues to focus on the Space Launch System and Orion crew capsule – the biggest rockets ever to get beyond Earth orbit into the deeper reaches of the solar system. NASA's stated aim is to get humans on to Mars in the 2030s, but that goal was announced before the rise of private rockets and space initiatives, which could help bring that time closer.

SpaceX is run by Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal, while Blue Origin is run by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos. With this level of visionary operating new space companies – running lean and efficient businesses rather than navigating the political tightropes that haunt NASA – the pace of the space race is picking up again. America's whole space programme faltered and staggered through the 80s and 90s due to budget cuts, short-term goals and Space Shuttle disasters. 

Working alongside NASA, these new companies can help get the human race faster and further into space, coming up with better designs, produced at lower cost, using new materials and innovative technologies. Their combined skills should help get us to the Moon and beyond faster than many have imagined. In fact, SpaceX plans to land on Mars by 2018 (https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/725351354537906176).

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