More on Inflatable Space Habitats

The Space Foundation Space Symposium is in full swing in Colorado Springs. Inflatable space habitat technology is being displayed at the Symposium by ILD Dover.

Flexible materials specialist ILC Dover is showing off a 12-foot-diameter planetary surface habitat and airlock here at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. The habitat -- pictured without radiation shielding -- could be combined with several others to make a caterpillar-like structure that would give astronauts enough room in which to work and live.

Included in the basic structure is an airlock for suit removal and storage.

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Also at the Space Symposium, Robert Bigelow has released pricing for reserving time in Bigelow Aerospace's planned orbiting inflatable habitats.

Bigelow Aerospace will charge "sovereign customers" - nations that want to send their astronauts into space - $14.95 million to spend four weeks in one of the company's proposed inflatable orbiting modules.

That time can be doubled for another $2.95 million. Private companies that want to lease a module for industrial research would be charged $88 million per year for a full 350-cubic meter module, and as little as $4.5 million per month for a half-module.

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