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jmvoodoo | 1 year ago

Sierra space seems to be furthest along on this. Videos of their burst tests are pretty epic as well.

https://www.sierraspace.com/commercial-space-stations/life-s...

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Loughla|1 year ago

What happens with debris or micro debris? They say it's stronger than steel, but steel doesn't really on the entire piece being critical to the structure, so holes won't necessarily lead to catastrophic failures. Or what am I missing?

more_corn|1 year ago

You’d probably want an auto sealing system. You can coat the inside of your bike tire in a goop that hardens if a puncture happens. The positive pressure squishes the liquid out the hole and it hardens. That will probably be standard equipment in space soon.

jerf|1 year ago

"Inflatable" doesn't have to mean "tightly stretched rubber like a balloon" or "lowest bidder plastic heat-bonded together with a picture of a flamingo in it". You can build strong materials that will still inflate, especially with .5-1 atmospheres of pressure, no problem.