First inflatable human cockpit has ever deployed in space

At the time where JC Keller thinks to design air bubbles to the rooftop, NASA provides habitable inflatable balloons for space.

NASA has deployed after seven hours of painstaking effort the Beam, a module testing inflatable habitats, which are lighter and less bulky and that could one day be used on Mars or the moon.

When the module was fully inflated, astronaut Jeff Williams, who carried out this delicate operation, has opened eight tanks of air inside the module, pressurizing it to a level close to the space station.

The astronauts will now carry out tests to check if the module does not air leakage and indulge in other preparatory tasks before entering for the first time in about a week.

The material that forms the bubble, Kevlar, also used in the design of the vests by ball, wrap presents a highly resistant thermoplastic.

The Beam, with a mass of 1.4 tons, measuring four meters long on 3.23 metres in diameter when fully inflated with breathable air. Its volume is thus multiplied by 4.5 which provides a space of 16 cubic metres, which is the equivalent of a small room.

This test of this module docked to the ISS will allow scientists and engineers to evaluate its performance and more particularly to determine whether it can provide protection against solar and cosmic radiation and micrometeoroids and other debris in addition to extreme temperatures.