BEAM Me Up! Prototype Space Room Could Lead to Inflatable Moon Bases

This Friday (April 8), SpaceX is scheduled to launch a Dragon cargo spacecraft toward the International Space Station, carrying the first expandable habitat that will be occupied by humans in orbit. The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) will be folded up into the trunk of the Dragon spacecraft like a parachute that is ready to be unfurled. The station's robotic arm will remove BEAM from the trunk, attach it to the Tranquility Node, and it will expand to more than five times its tota