A hard shell that unfolds like oragami will fit in a single Starship payload but expand to over 250k cubic meters of space (which seems impossible, that's like 10 olympic pools) and offers practical solutions for many of the common engineering challenges with building long-term human habitations in orbit.
13 Comments
burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 40 pts · 149d
I'm here for it
RecursiveParadox@piefed.social · 21 pts · 149d
Yes bassmang.
threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 149d
Huh, so it's kind of like an inflatable module, but made of interlocking rigid panels? An interesting concept. I am undecided as to whether the increased volume would be worth the additional complexity.
burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 6 pts · 149d
It's cool to see concepts like this, even if I don't expect anything like it to happen anytime soon.
Another one that comes to mind is ThinkOrbital's spherical station made from welding together rigid panels like a soccer ball.
pennomi@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 149d
artifex@piefed.social · 4 pts · 149d
It’s apparently a much bigger internal volume than you’d get with today’s inflatable tech. With the caveat, of course, that inflatable tech has been tested already and this has not (though we’ve used origami techniques to expand payloads before, like on the JWST)
bitteroldcoot@piefed.social · 5 pts · 149d
Seem like a good way to get rid of some billionaires.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_submersible_implosion
very_well_lost@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 149d
In many ways, the engineering of a space habitat is a lot easier than a deep-sea submersible...
A space station only needs to keep 1 atmosphere of pressure in, whereas a submarine has to keep hundreds of atmospheres of pressure out.
bitteroldcoot@piefed.social · 1 pts · 149d
don't kill my dreams like that.
very_well_lost@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 149d
Well, don't lose hope. Rockets still explode in giant fireballs more often than any other form of transportation.
bitteroldcoot@piefed.social · 4 pts · 149d
Thanks man., I needed that.
davidgro@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 148d
Are you including Formula 1 and similar?
Cocodapuf@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 148d
Hmm... Yeah that probably applies to formula 1 as well. We'd have to do the math to know for sure, but a quick Google search says that about 3% of astronauts/cosmonauts have died during a mission. I'd be surprised if the fatality rate for race car drivers is higher than that.
HubertManne@piefed.social · 1 pts · 149d
I was under the impression just a cloth type of thing could be vaguely in the vicinity and the airflow would send it to the hole. Its like strong enough to drag things over but not so strong it will tend to rip up the surface or something.