belgareth
08-11-2004, 10:14 AM
U.S. Hotel Tycoon Reaches for the Stars
Sun Aug 8,10:17 AM ET
By Michael Belfiore LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Budget
Suites of America owner Robert Bigelow made his fortune by offering weary business travelers a fully furnished home
away from home, complete with on-site laundry.
He now wants to bring the same feeling of comfort and convenience to
a new frontier in leisure: outer space.
From a 50-acre research facility on the outskirts of Las Vegas, the
60-year-old entrepreneur can survey the length of the city's famous Strip, home to some of the biggest hotels in
the world.
Still,
Bigelow has his sights set higher -- 250 miles higher, to be exact.
Through his latest business venture, Bigelow Aerospace, the hotel
mogul, who caught the space bug as a boy in the 1950s, has been quietly building the world's first commercial space
station.
If all
goes well, space hotels will not be far behind -- provided that future space tourists have a way to check in.
"We can build it,"
Bigelow said. "But they may not come."
Even so, after five years of effort behind closed doors, Bigelow
Aerospace is nearly ready to begin flight-testing its hardware, and has applied to the Federal Aviation
Administration (news - web sites) for approval to launch its Genesis module into orbit on a commercial rocket in
November 2005.
Genesis is a one-third scale test version of the company's habitable Nautilus module, the first of which
could be launched as early as 2008, depending on the results of subsequent orbital tests, scheduled for 2006 and
2007.
Watermelon-shaped, with 330 cubic meters of interior volume, the Nautilus would approach the International
Space Station (news - web sites)'s current 425 cubic meters, and could be attached to others of its kind to create
much larger orbital habitats.
Bigelow's efforts come as the commercial space race is heating up. A U.S. team has set Sept. 29 as the
date for a second space launch of SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded manned ship to reach space.
If the craft
designed by aerospace developer Burt Rutan can make that flight with three people on board and repeat the entire
venture within two weeks, it could claim the Ansari X prize, $10 million for the first team that: (1) Launches a
piloted, privately funded spaceship able to carry 3 people to 62.5 miles, (2) Returns safely to Earth and (3)
Repeats the launch with the same ship within two weeks.
A second team, Canada's da Vinci project, plans to use a balloon to
lift a rocket to a height of 80,000 feet before firing its engine and making a run at the boundary with space and
possibly the prize money.
SPACE ON A BUDGET
Applying lessons learned from his terrestrial development ventures, Bigelow plans to make Bigelow Aerospace
profitable by selling Nautilus modules as orbital laboratories and tourist destinations for $100 million each.
That price will
include a standardized, fully configured module, complete with life support systems as well as living and working
areas. The company will provide astronauts and broker launch services for additional fees. Leasing options will also
be available.
Bigelow has committed $500 million of his personal fortune through 2015 to Bigelow Aerospace, or about half
the cost of a typical 3,000-room Las Vegas hotel, according to Bigelow.
The hotelier-cum-space entrepreneur cites his refusal
to spend public money as the single most important factor in keeping his costs relatively low.
"It's
substantially important to use private money," he said of space development. "You can't do it on time or on budget
on government money."
To realize his dream of affordable space stations, Bigelow acquired exclusive development rights to a NASA
(news - web sites) design for inflatable space station modules. That design, dubbed TransHab, called for a kind of
high-tech balloon that would be launched in a compressed configuration, and expanded in orbit.
TransHab was the
victim of budget cuts, but Bigelow Aerospace picked up where NASA left off, refining the design to cut weight and
costs compared with the rigid metal hulls conventionally used on space stations.
Bigelow says he wants to put the United States back
at the forefront of space technology, and to make it possible for "Joe Six-Pack" to vacation in space.
"NASA is so
risk-averse," he told Reuters. "That's insane for exploration. Zero risk means zero accomplishment."
Sun Aug 8,10:17 AM ET
By Michael Belfiore LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Budget
Suites of America owner Robert Bigelow made his fortune by offering weary business travelers a fully furnished home
away from home, complete with on-site laundry.
He now wants to bring the same feeling of comfort and convenience to
a new frontier in leisure: outer space.
From a 50-acre research facility on the outskirts of Las Vegas, the
60-year-old entrepreneur can survey the length of the city's famous Strip, home to some of the biggest hotels in
the world.
Still,
Bigelow has his sights set higher -- 250 miles higher, to be exact.
Through his latest business venture, Bigelow Aerospace, the hotel
mogul, who caught the space bug as a boy in the 1950s, has been quietly building the world's first commercial space
station.
If all
goes well, space hotels will not be far behind -- provided that future space tourists have a way to check in.
"We can build it,"
Bigelow said. "But they may not come."
Even so, after five years of effort behind closed doors, Bigelow
Aerospace is nearly ready to begin flight-testing its hardware, and has applied to the Federal Aviation
Administration (news - web sites) for approval to launch its Genesis module into orbit on a commercial rocket in
November 2005.
Genesis is a one-third scale test version of the company's habitable Nautilus module, the first of which
could be launched as early as 2008, depending on the results of subsequent orbital tests, scheduled for 2006 and
2007.
Watermelon-shaped, with 330 cubic meters of interior volume, the Nautilus would approach the International
Space Station (news - web sites)'s current 425 cubic meters, and could be attached to others of its kind to create
much larger orbital habitats.
Bigelow's efforts come as the commercial space race is heating up. A U.S. team has set Sept. 29 as the
date for a second space launch of SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded manned ship to reach space.
If the craft
designed by aerospace developer Burt Rutan can make that flight with three people on board and repeat the entire
venture within two weeks, it could claim the Ansari X prize, $10 million for the first team that: (1) Launches a
piloted, privately funded spaceship able to carry 3 people to 62.5 miles, (2) Returns safely to Earth and (3)
Repeats the launch with the same ship within two weeks.
A second team, Canada's da Vinci project, plans to use a balloon to
lift a rocket to a height of 80,000 feet before firing its engine and making a run at the boundary with space and
possibly the prize money.
SPACE ON A BUDGET
Applying lessons learned from his terrestrial development ventures, Bigelow plans to make Bigelow Aerospace
profitable by selling Nautilus modules as orbital laboratories and tourist destinations for $100 million each.
That price will
include a standardized, fully configured module, complete with life support systems as well as living and working
areas. The company will provide astronauts and broker launch services for additional fees. Leasing options will also
be available.
Bigelow has committed $500 million of his personal fortune through 2015 to Bigelow Aerospace, or about half
the cost of a typical 3,000-room Las Vegas hotel, according to Bigelow.
The hotelier-cum-space entrepreneur cites his refusal
to spend public money as the single most important factor in keeping his costs relatively low.
"It's
substantially important to use private money," he said of space development. "You can't do it on time or on budget
on government money."
To realize his dream of affordable space stations, Bigelow acquired exclusive development rights to a NASA
(news - web sites) design for inflatable space station modules. That design, dubbed TransHab, called for a kind of
high-tech balloon that would be launched in a compressed configuration, and expanded in orbit.
TransHab was the
victim of budget cuts, but Bigelow Aerospace picked up where NASA left off, refining the design to cut weight and
costs compared with the rigid metal hulls conventionally used on space stations.
Bigelow says he wants to put the United States back
at the forefront of space technology, and to make it possible for "Joe Six-Pack" to vacation in space.
"NASA is so
risk-averse," he told Reuters. "That's insane for exploration. Zero risk means zero accomplishment."