Watch Sierra Space blow up a space station module in slow-moThe Colorado-based company’s latest “burst test” is part of a campaign to build Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef space station.Chris Young| Sep 21, 2023 08:50 AM ESTCreated: Sep 21, 2023 08:50 AM ESTinnovationA screen capture of the LIFE prototype explosion.Sierra Space / YouTube Get a daily digest of the latest news in tech, science, and technology, delivered right to your mailbox.Subscribe now.By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Use and Policies You may unsubscribe at any time.Colorado-based company Sierra Space has once again blown up a space station module prototype.The company is developing a module for the Orbital Reef “space business park” by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.It has deliberately blown up a module prototype and shared footage for the fifth time.The explosive test took place on August 17, according to a press statement.With this test complete, Sierra Space says it can now start full-scale testing of its module.
You can watch the test footage at the bottom of the page.Orbital Reef is one of several private space stations NASA has funded in a bid to create a small fleet of successors to the International Space Station (ISS).See Also Related Sierra Space just blew up a space station module to test Orbital Reef NASA Awarded Blue Origin a Contract to Develop a Commercial Space Station Can you improve on the ISS? Nanoracks hopes Starlab will fit the bill Sierra Space’s explosive module testSierra Space tested a new design that included a metal plate as a stand-in for a window.The so-called “burst test” was conducted on a one-third-scale module developed by Delaware-based company ILC Dover.The tests are meant to push the limits of the modules that will eventually fly in low Earth orbit.
The prototypes used for these tests are made of “softgoods” and woven fabrics that become rigid once inflated.Sierra Space hopes to have the module for the Orbital Reef space station ready by 2030.The company is also developing a space plane called Dream Chaser to ferry cargo and crew to and from the space station, as well as to and from the ISS.Our team successfully completed a fifth, sub-scale test of the revolutionary LIFE habitat at @NASA_Marshall.This test article included a blanking plate and allows the team to move onto full-scale testing of the LIFE product line development.Link: https://t.co/Ul9ltYlr8w pic.twitter.com/irZ93x5pu5— Sierra Space (@SierraSpaceCo) September 20, 2023″This is a phenomenal achievement,” Shawn Buckley, senior director of engineering and product evolution director for Sierra Space Destinations, explained in the company’s statement.The latest burst test, he said, “provides the necessary engineering foundation” to do full-scale tests of the Sierra Space module, called LIFE (Large Integrated Flexible Environment) that will eventually form a part of Orbital Reef.The “ultimate burst pressure” (UBP) test results showed that the LIFE prototype has a 33 percent margin over the certification standard for a full-scale module.Sierra said this is almost a 20 percent improvement over previous designs in its statement.The future of orbital space stationsSierra has conducted two other burst tests on LIFE prototypes, in July and November last year.The company also performed creep tests, in which the modules had to withstand long periods of time at high pressures, in December 2022 and February 2023.The ISS was launched in 1998 by NASA and Russian space agency Roscosmos.Its launch ushered in an unprecedented era of global scientific collaboration.Today, though, tensions between the two nations means the future of orbital science will become increasingly fragmented.In January last year, NASA announced plans to extend the lifespan of the ISS beyond 2030.
However, it has also been planning for life without Russian collaboration since before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Russia, meanwhile, is working on its own space station called Mir, which it aims to launch by around 2025.In a press statement released in October 2021, Blue Origin said that Orbital Reef will be ideal for “film-making in microgravity” as well as for “conducting cutting-edge research”, and it will even include a “space hotel.”The slow-motion footage of the burst test starts at around the five-minute mark in the embedded video below.HomeInnovationAdd Interesting Engineering to your Google News feed.Add Interesting Engineering to your Google News feed.SHOW COMMENT (1) For You How high heat affects EVs and what you can do about itYou can hear silence, claim researchers, settling an old debateBlack holes scarf up matter at dizzying speeds, says studyA “lost world” from a billion years ago discoveredThe future of medicine could lie in organoid researchChatGPT’s crypto token makes $12 million in trading on day 1’Aliens’ displayed in Mexico are from a single skeletonIsrael has unveiled its AI-assisted next-gen ‘Merkava’ tank12 science, tech, and engineering newsletters you need to check outALMA and Webb study universe’s farthest galaxy protocluster Job Board.
