In 2026, a special new astronaut residence will be added. The company Max Space is developing spacecraft that can expand into a kind of marshmallow in which astronauts can even stretch their legs.
The idea is that these will be a kind of pods in which astronauts can stay. They are being developed by the start-up and designed by Aaron Kemmer and Maxim de Jong. De Jong is not just anyone: he also helped develop the living environment that is now attached to the International Space Station. The Max Space consists of a hard part and a softer part that is a kind of balloon that immediately gives you space to move around. That balloon only inflates when the craft has been properly launched and is put together like a kind of basket. Strips of Kevlar are woven together and sewn together so that air pressure is evenly distributed.
Max Space
The expression ‘as leaky as a basket’ does not exist for nothing and that is also what the engineers were afraid of. That is why De Jong came up with a solution, although it came at a special moment. His son was ill and he looked at the helium-filled get-well balloons. Then he realized: “Every volume that you can put something in has a load in two directions. A foil balloon has two disks but a lot of wrinkles: all the tension is on one axis and that is a mathematical anomaly.” He wondered whether this could also be reproduced on a larger scale. In literature from 330 years ago by a French mathematician named James Bernoulli it was already mentioned how something like this works. That is how De Jong was able to predict how that works with all his keflar cords (via TechCrunch).
There are 96 of these in the prototypes and they can be loaded up to 17,000 pounds. The structure is very reliable under pressure. In addition, you can easily ‘fold’ it: the habitat is 20 cubic meters when inflated, but can become a flat package of 2 cubic meters when empty. Thanks to falling launch costs, it is becoming increasingly realistic that this space marshmallow can take to the air. The launch is planned for 2026 and will be on a SpaceX spacecraft that works like a kind of carpool: other companies can also hitch a ride. The final module will be larger than those 20 cubic meters, but testing is being done with this smaller version. This larger one may then possibly be used for missions to the moon and Mars.
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Source: www.bright.nl
