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i am here with heidi brewer who is the

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operations lead for beam beam of course

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is the bigelow expandable activity

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module that arrived on april 10th and is

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getting ready to be expanded for the

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first time so we are here with heidi and

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she's going to tell us a little bit

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about what uh has to go on between today

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and its actual scheduled expansion on

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thursday

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beam was installed on tranquility last

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month right so what's been going on

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since then

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to get it ready for this expansion so

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since then on the ground we've been

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reviewing our procedures and getting

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ready for all the upcoming operations

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and making sure that the timeline is in

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good shape and then on board jeff has

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been performing a lot of our road to

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activities this morning he actually

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installed some cables for the laptop

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that we're going to use for sensor data

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collection and then also checked out the

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deployment controller that will be used

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for deployment on thursday okay so has

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it been pretty smooth sailing any any

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hiccups so far so good yeah operations

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are going well so does that give you a

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good feeling then about thursday yes all

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right so what is actually going to

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happen on thursday how does how do how

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do we expand the module

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so deployment actually has five

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different activities that take place uh

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the first one is we're going to be

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closing the ascent vent valve beam is

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currently in uh

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its depressurized state and so we need

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to close the the valve first

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then after that we'll be cutting the

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restraint straps that's holding the

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module in its packed configuration and

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then the forward bulkhead will be

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released then we'll go into expansion

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which is the

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expansion from its pack configuration to

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its full shape and then lastly it'll be

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pressurized

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so this will be mostly performed by the

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crew

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okay so you said close the vent valve

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i'm guessing that's just basically a

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hole that is currently keeping it

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unexpanded so that you make it

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um

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into it and then it expands or how does

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that work so uh it actually is currently

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open to keep beam at a vacuum and then

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it will be closed so that we can provide

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air through a different uh location

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that's through the hatch okay and then

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you mentioned restraint straps have to

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be cut out is that how does that happen

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so the most of the sequence will be

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performed by using the deployment

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controller that jeff checked out this

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morning most of it is an automated

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sequence then we'll pause after the

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first couple steps then he will perform

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some manual expansion through the hatch

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and then we'll complete it by doing

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pressurization

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which is using the controller again okay

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so what's the difference between manual

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expansion and

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non-manual i guess robotic

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so the manual expansion is the first

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portion which is going to take us from

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the pack configuration to the full shape

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so we'll be able to see

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the beam basically at its full shape and

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then the pressurization that last part

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of the expansion will take it from a

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lower pressure to its full pressure okay

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what what does jeff have to do for the

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manual expression is it expansion is it

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just pressing buttons or is it anything

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out of the ordinary he'll be opening and

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closing a valve and he's using equipment

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that he's used for a number of other

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machines okay interesting all right well

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um how much bigger will it actually get

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how can you give us an idea of you know

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how small it is now and how big it'll be

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at the end so once the beam is fully

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expanded it's going to be a little under

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four and a half times its current volume

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so it's going to be expected quite a

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yeah and then once it's at its

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optimal volume is it roughly the same as

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the other modules on the space station

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or

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a little smaller it's a little bit

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smaller

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yeah but still big enough for a person

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to get inside i'm sure yes that's right

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and we'll be outfitting it with a number

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of different sensors okay what will the

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sensors do

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we'll have sensors to collect

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information on radiation and also impact

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detection to see what the mmod is like

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in that area of space station an mmod

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just for people who don't know is micro

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meteoroid orbital debris that's correct

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and then also temperature i haven't

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mentioned that one okay

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all right so um

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for the orbital debris detection i guess

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that's important because this is not our

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standard module we want to know how it

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reacts if it is hit by orbital debris if

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we would expect it to leak that sort of

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thing is that part of the the whole

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point of having beam on the space

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station yes it's just taking a look at

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how beam performs compared to the

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standard aluminum module okay how

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what kind of feedback will you get on

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that do we

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get a warning when it's hit or

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tell us what to expect the sensors will

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be polling and collecting data over a

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period of time and most of the data is

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going to be sent over to a laptop that's

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housed in node three and then the ground

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will send a command up to get the

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information down to the ground and it'll

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be analyzed by the analysts on the

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ground

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the crew will also go inside and

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retrieve some radiation

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badges that they'll be deploying every

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couple months okay so you mentioned

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they'll go inside but they won't stay

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inside for long periods of time is that

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the intent they won't move into this one

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and start living there that's correct

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it's mostly for sensor data collection

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okay so it's basically a demonstration

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to to figure out if this is technology

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that that will work long term in space

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yes why is that important why do we need

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to know

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because

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the expandable feature of this module is

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that it takes up a little bit less space

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to get to orbit it's a little bit less

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mass to get to orbit and so if we're

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able to utilize it in the same way that

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we do our traditional aluminum modules

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then it may be game changing in the

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future for future exploration why is

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that why is it important to have the the

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smaller ones available

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we should be able to send more things up

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into space and do more science and more

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research great that sounds very

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promising

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um so you mentioned that the crew will

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be taking some samples over the next

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couple of years right yes the next two

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years okay um how often would you say

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what kind of how will they take them

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is it similar to the other samples they

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take at the space station or yes it'll

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be very similar actually we'll be

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collecting information on microbial

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samples so both surface samples and also

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air samples

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and then the radiation samples okay

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all right well tell us just what what

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your role in all of this is

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so i am the operations lead i've been

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helping put together the timeline and

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sort of telling the story of beam and

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integrating it with the operations team

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so

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looking forward to having it actually