NASA taps Sierra Nevada Corp. to build deep-space habitat prototype

LOUISVILLE — Sierra Nevada Corp., which bases its Space Systems Division in Louisville, has been selected by NASA as one of six companies tasked with designing prototypes of deep-space habitats that are capable of sustaining astronauts for 1,000 days or more without supply deliveries from Earth.

The contracts are being awarded as NASA works toward not only expanding commercial development of space in low-Earth orbit but also eventually sending astronauts to Mars.

In addition to SNC, Bigelow Aerospace, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK and NanoRacks were chosen for the program. Specific contract amounts are yet to be negotiated, but NASA officials said this week that they estimate the combined total of all of the awards for work in 2016 and 2017 to be about $65 million. Additional efforts and funding would continue into 2018, and participating companies would be required to contribute at least a third of the cost of their proposed efforts.

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“This program is a perfect opportunity to showcase the heritage of our 25-plus years supporting space missions,” Mark Sirangelo, head of SNC Space Systems, said in a news release. “This habitat will combine our experience in space technologies, satellite systems, propulsion and environmental control systems from our subsidiary Orbitec, as well as our work with the Dream Chaser spacecraft under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and Cargo Resupply Services 2 contract to support the International Space Station.”

The SNC habitat will be based on the Dream Chaser cargo module being designed for the CRS-2 missions, and will be designed to go into orbit around the moon as a sort of proving ground for technologies to be used on trips to Mars.

NASA will use the prototypes to support integrated systems testing, human factors and operations testing, and to help define system functionality. Those functions will help NASA define design standards, common interfaces, and requirements for the flight systems that are ultimately sent to space.

The SNC habitat will be designed to launch attached to Dream Chaser, but will include an electric propulsion system for transferring to lunar orbit by itself. Other attributes will include significant pressurized volume for long-duration human activity, docking capability with NASA’s Orion spacecraft and other systems, environmental control and life-support systems, airlocks for astronaut extravehicular activities, and crew health-monitoring and support systems.