Sierra Space Completes Explosive Test Of Its Inflatable LIFE Habitat; Reports High Success
Sierra Space, on September 13, announced that they completed the highest burst pressure test from a large flexible environmental habitat (life) with high success. Done at the NASA Johnson Space Center, the purpose of this test is to show the ability of habitat to withstand maximum internal pressure outside a safe level. According to Sierra’s room, habitat exploded at 192 PSI (square inch) internal pressure, exceeding the security requirements of 182.4 PSI.
Space, as we know, is a vacuum and thus there is no atmospheric pressure. On earth, humans are accustomed to experiencing external pressure balanced by internal pressure from our body. Because there will be no energy from the environment outside the earth, space habitats such as the International Space Station (ISS) and even life habitat will be artificially maintaining atmospheric pressure to maintain balance.
“Sub-scale tests are used to support the development of full system as a whole and to determine the ability of the vehicle to withstand the maximum internal pressure needed to cause a failure of vehicle pressure shells, commonly known as a lining of the recognition,” Sierra Space explained in a statement. Explaining the purpose of the new pressure test, James Kerwin, manager of the space habitat program at ILC Dover said that it shows that “we can achieve higher safety requirements that cannot even be done by hard structures.” The amount of pressure can be understood by the fact that explosive habitats are made of material called vectran which is five times stronger than steel when fully increasing.
Kerwin said that vectran is a very high -powered material that performs very well under the application. “This gives us the best performance while maximizing the volume of livable in the habitat,” he added. The teams also found that part of the habitat called ‘stitches’ which was also the weakest point in the survivor design of the explosion which according to Kerwin “was very interesting.” The test was carried out on a third scale of life habitat and was the first of two sub-scale burst tests scheduled for 2022 for habitat certification. After completion, life will function as a residence and cargo element for the commercial space of the reef, which is being developed under the collaboration between the Sierra room and the blue origin.
