{"id":158525,"date":"2022-12-15T11:41:58","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T11:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/sierra-space-deliberately-destroys-space-module-during-tests\/"},"modified":"2022-12-15T11:41:58","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T11:41:58","slug":"sierra-space-deliberately-destroys-space-module-during-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/sierra-space-deliberately-destroys-space-module-during-tests\/","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Space Deliberately Destroys Space Module During Tests"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The LIFE habitat at the moment of failure. <\/figcaption>
gif: Sierra Space\/Gizmodo<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Private space company Sierra Space announced yesterday that it successfully completed a stress test last month on an in-development astronaut habitat\u2014a test that involved the pumping of gas into the inflatable module until it blew apart. This is the second successful test, following one earlier this year in July.<\/p>\n

Sierra Space has been developing the Large Integrated Flexible Environment<\/span>, or LIFE, habitat to continue its foray into long-term commercial spaceflight. The company says that the LIFE habitat is a three-story platform designed for both low Earth orbit and long-duration missions that can house habitat and science efforts. The company, along with Blue Origin, is seeking to place a private space station, called Orbital Reef<\/span>into Earth orbit, on which the LIFE modules would be attached. <\/p>\n

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Conceptual image of Orbital Reef. <\/figcaption>
Image: Sierra Space<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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To test the strength of the LIFE habitat in space, Sierra Space performed a successful Ultimate Burst Pressure (UBP) test. The team took a one-third scale version of the habitat and pumped it full of hydrogen gas until the point of failure\u2014explosion\u2014to determine its stress limits. Given how violent the explosion threatened to be, the Sierra Space team performed the test on the same launch pad that NASA used to test rockets during the Apollo program. This is the second UBP stress test of LIFE, following one in July. Both have proven successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis second successful UBP test proves we can demonstrate design, manufacturing and assembly repeatability, all of which are key areas for certification,\u201d said LIFE chief engineer Shawn Buckley in a company press release<\/span>. Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice also said: \u201cThe LIFE habitat module is essential technology for enabling humans to safely and comfortably begin to develop new civilizations in space.\u201d<\/p>\n