Sierra Space, a company that develops commercial infrastructure for use in space, recently conducted a critical safety test of what it calls a Large Integrated Flexible Environment, or LIFE for short - a kind of inflatable space trailer designed to provide a living or working environment for astronauts .
The experiment ended in an explosion - but the company is very satisfied with it.
We enlisted the help of Forefront to explain why.
The LIFE module that exploded in the test was a prototype - the first in full size, after several previous tests on scaled-down models.
The purpose of the experiment was to verify the structural stability of the module against varying air pressures in space.
The module was installed at NASA's Marshall Space Center, and the engineers gradually increased the air pressure inside it until it exploded, to test the upper limit of pressure it could withstand. The module reached a pressure of 77psi - a pressure 27% higher than the safety factor required by NASA "A, which stands at 60.8psi.
Therefore, this experiment demonstrated a significant margin of safety and was considered a resounding success.
The Sierra Spice module uses a combination of soft materials with inflatable 'beams' made of Vectran - a kind of extremely strong fabric with a higher rigidity than steel.
This combination allows habitable modules to be launched into space compressed to a chemotactic size, then inflated to their full size when they reach their destination.
However, to approve them for use, it was necessary to demonstrate that the module could withstand extreme overpressure without catastrophic failure.
Although the test successfully proved the structural strength of the module - but it also led to an unexpected conclusion: shortly after passing the NASA pressure threshold, the engineers noticed an air leak, which led to the discovery of a problem with the ventilation valve. They continued the experiment, but now plan to work on Tightening the ventilation mechanism to prevent similar leaks in future space stations.
Sierra Space's inflatable pods are planned to make up Orbital Reef, the world's first commercial space station, to be built by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' space company.
The commercial station is expected to replace the International Space Station at the end of this decade.
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