Inflation Factor: Bigelow Readies Test Module

Room to grow! Bigelow Aerospace is busy plotting out a series of inflatable structures to be positioned in space.

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver talks with Bigelow Aerospace President Robert Bigelow prior to touring their facilities on Feb. 4, 2011 in Las Vegas. NASA has been discussing potential partnership opportunities with Bigelow for its inflatable habitat technologies.

Space entrepreneur Robert Bigelow (left) discusses layout plans of the company's lunar base with Eric Haakonstad, one of the Bigelow Aerospace lead engineers.

Tucked inside the nose fairing of a Dnepr booster, the Bigelow Aerospace Genesis-1 expandable module. Prototype hardware is a technology test for larger modules and a foothold on advanced habitable structures in space. Photo courtesy: Mike Gold

Bigelow Aerospace's Genesis 2 spacecraft is a near twin of Genesis 1, seen here in this self-portrait after its July 2006 launch.

The International Space Station has modules a many with discussions under way to attach a privately built Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM for short.

Bigelow Aerospace engineers see an instant moon base by using a cluster of expandable modules that are piloted to the moon's surface.

Several private spaceflight companies are eyeing the moon as a destination for future space tourists like this one envisioned by entrepreneur Robert Bigelow of Bigelow Aerospace, who has already launched two space station module prototypes into orbit.

Made with walls of reinforced fabric, expandable spacecraft like this model by the private space company Bigelow Aerospaceshown here in one-third scalemay one day house astronauts on the moon.

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Bigelow Aerospace's Inflatable Space Station Idea (Photos)