This artist's rendering shows a Bigelow inflatable space station. NASA is testing an inflatable room that can be compressed into a 2m tube for delivery to the International Space Station. Source: AP

NASA is partnering with a commercial space company in a bid to replace the cumbersome "metal cans" that now serve as astronauts' homes in space with inflatable bounce-house-like habitats that can be deployed on the cheap.

A $US17.8 million ($16.9 million) test project will send to the International Space Station an inflatable room that can be compressed into a two-metre tube for delivery, officials said in a news conference at North Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace.

If the module proves durable during two years at the space station, it could open the door to habitats on the moon and missions to Mars, NASA engineer Glen Miller said.

The agency chose Bigelow for the contract because it was the only company working on inflatable technology, said NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver.

Founder and President Robert Bigelow, who made his fortune in the hotel industry before getting into the space business in 1999, framed the gambit as an out-of-this-world real estate venture. He hopes to sell his spare tyre habitats to scientific companies and wealthy adventurers looking for space hotels.

Bigelow Aerospace founder Robert Bigelow speaks near a scale model of an inflatable habitat. NASA has partnered with the company to try the cheaper inflatable accomodation for astronauts in space.

NASA is expected to install the 4-metre, blimp-like module in a space station port by 2015. Bigelow plans to begin selling stand-alone space homes the next year.

The new technology provides three times as much room as the existing aluminum models, and is also easier and less costly to build, Mr Miller said.

Artist renderings of the module resemble a tinfoil clown nose grafted onto the main station. It is hardly big enough to be called a room. Mr Miller described it as a large closet with padded white walls and gear and gizmos strung from two central beams.

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NASA to try inflatable housing in space