Bigelow Aerospace launched their first inflatable space module on a Russian company’s rocket today. The premise seems similar to what Werhner von Braun was promoting on Disney’s TV show in the 1950s (although I don’t think he mentioned it in Collier’s): build a spacestation by inflating a large bladder and adding metal siding until it forms a single cylinder. You’d then link the cylinder’s together to form your old fashioned spoked wheel-style station. Neat, eh?
The science holds up remarkably well in the von Braun specials.
Space.com’s Leonard David is blogging it on LiveScience and earned himself a place on my must read it list.
If you get a chance to pick up (or NetFlix) a DVD of Disney’s Tomorrowland, do so. It includes all three Disney/von Braun specials and Walt’s original EPCOT Center pitch. Unfortunately, neither von Braun nor Disney’s vision of the future occured as they would have preferred.