Content area
Full Text
A lot goes into building a house, from finding the right place to put it, gathering the experts and right materials to build it, and scheduling tasks to complete the project.
A new addition to the International Space Station may simplify the process, not necessarily for homes on Earth, but to create homes millions of miles away, on the journey to deep space destinations, including Mars.
The eighth SpaceX resupply mission, scheduled to launch to the space station April 8, will carry the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) - an experimental module made by Bigelow Aerospace of Las Vegas, which can dock with the station and then expand to approximately 12 feet long and 10.5 feet in diameter, providing a potential habitable area for crew members to live and work in space.
"The space station provides an ideal laboratory to test the BEAM expandable module in the harsh environment where it will have to operate," said Julie Robinson, NASA's chief scientist for the International Space Station. "BEAM has many desirable features for space...