Indian Startup Tests Inflatable Space Habitat Technology at High Altitude
An Indian space startup, Akashalabdhi Space, has successfully tested an experimental inflatable structure at an altitude of approximately 30 km. This test, conducted via a high-altitude balloon launched from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research's National Balloon Facility in Hyderabad, is a significant step towards developing expandable space habitats and orbital factories. The 25-kg experimental mission, part of the company's ANTARIKSHAB program, aimed to evaluate the structure's deployment, inflation, rigidization, autonomous control systems, avionics, electrical power systems, and telemetry. Unlike traditional spacecraft, rigidisable inflatable systems can be compactly stored during launch and expanded once in space, offering larger working volumes without requiring massive launch vehicles. The mission also included two research payloads: the Microbial Regolith Experiment (MRX) from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to study microbial processes for consolidating lunar and Martian regolith int...
