Space Businesses

Longterm thinking about utilizing space for profit.

Components

1. Launch capability
2. Human habitation and support
3. Interplanetary transporation (manned or unmanned)
1. Small Payload Transportation
2. Large Payload Haulers
4. Interplanetary communications
5. Space Robotics
6. Spaceborne manufacturing
1. Manufacturing in space
2. PERMANENT

Some comments I made to Bigelow Aerospace

I'd like to see more information about your plans for the the internal configuration(s) for the BA330 module. Surely you've done some conceptual designs at least which could be shared. Just to give more of an idea of what it would be like to be inside the finished module.

Also, I'd love to see more of your concept work on the modular space stations which can be built using the BA330 modules. All of the concept images which have been released to date seem kind of unrealistic, with far less solar panel and radiator surface area than, for example, the ISS.

It could be easy to understimate the value of sharing this information with the public. The slogan on the main page says "getting you excited again about space." Well, getting people to think about space (and space stations) again and in a more practical way, is probably even more important.

The time table you have set for reaching availabilty of the BA330 is quite quick, relatively speaking. Since you are planning to sell these modules, I think it is important to get as much practical information out there so that people can dust off all the old ideas and come up with new ones and determine which business plans are likely to be the most profitable and feasible. Releasing this kind of information sooner rather than later could mean a significant change in the number of customers waiting for your product once it is ready.

When looking at the big picture, your company is the start of an evolving space economy where space programs are no longer huge "from scratch" efforts but instead can be done (eventually) using mostly off-the-shelf components.

What this will mean is that large companies who would not pursue space-based business today will likely find them feasible tomorrow. Simply sharing the most information possible about your plans could bring that future closer.