Sierra Space conducted another test on its inflatable habitat technology and showed that the module exceeded its requirements even with the addition of a window in the fabric structure. On September 20, the company announced that it had conducted the fifth in a series of tests of subscale versions of its LIFE (Large Integrated Flexible Environment) inflatable module. An explosion test conducted in August at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in collaboration with ILC Dover pressurized the module until it eventually exploded.

A key difference from previous tests was the addition of a metal structure called a plug on the outside of the module. The plate was a window that would be installed on full-scale versions of the module to see how it would affect the strength of the design.

“This was a natural progression of our testing,” Sierra Space senior director of development Sean Buckley said in an interview. An engineering analysis showed how assembling the structure would maintain adequate stock. “But the only reliable way to really validate this data in soft goods and soft goods structures is to do a final batch test of this,” he said.

Even with the metal plate, the module exploded at a pressure 20% higher than the previous test without the plate. “Not only did we add a metal plate to the product, but we also found key areas we wanted to improve from previous testing,” he said, which led to better results. The module now has a 33% margin compared to the certification standard for a full-scale LIFE module.

The next step is to run similar tests on a full-scale prototype. According to Buckley, this will be just the latest in a series of “gates” in overall testing focusing on various levels of LIFE’s overall design, including minimizing leaks and testing its resistance to impacts from micrometeorites and orbital debris.

“Over the next 24 months we’ll be going through a series of gates and starting to develop our hardware that supports what we’re doing in this testing,” he said. “The flight hardware will arrive within the next 24 to 36 months.”

Sierra Space is developing LIFE as a component of the Orbital Reef commercial space station, which it is working on with Blue Origin and other companies. Sierra Space also proposed flying the LIFE module as an autonomous reference that could be used for commercial research into Orbital Reef.

The tests were conducted in a fire ditch at the Marshall Test Stand, which was once used for the Saturn 1 and 1B rockets. According to Buckley, the area is ideal for storing debris from blast testing, but it also has other benefits.

“We chose this for pure inspiration,” he said. “If you walk past it and think about the story that happened in that burning ditch, I can tell you I was inspired by that.” Source