ASU will help build an ‘office park’ space station | KJZZ – KJZZ

Blue Origin Media.

Artist's conception of Orbital Reef.

A global group of companies and universities has announced plans to develop an "office park in space" to open by the end of the decade.

Arizona State University will play a leadership role in the enterprise, which includes Blue Origin, Sierra Space and Boeing along with Redwire Space and Genesis Engineering Solutions.

Orbital Reef is a commercial space station to be built in low Earth orbit for research, governmental, industrial and travel uses.

ASU will lead the advisory council of 14 universities that will provide public outreach and research guidance: Colorado School of Mines, International Space University, Oxford University, Purdue University, Southwest Research Institute, Stanford University, University of Central Florida, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Florida, University of Michigan, University of Texas at El Paso and University of Texas Medical.

"The inspirational aspects of space exploration are huge for society, and we want everyone in the world who wants to participate to be able to participate," saidLindy Elkins-Tanton, vice president of ASU's Interplanetary Initiative.

The consortium plans to apply innovations from commercial space and the International Space Station to lower barriers for small businesses, modest research projects and nations without their own space programs.

"The growth in interest and the growth in the space economy and the growth in the private sector has been so profound that we're at this tipping point now where we can go into space as a society instead of just as a government agency," said Elkins-Tanton, who also leads theNASA Psyche mission to study a nickel-iron asteroid that might be the core of a failed planet.

Blue Origin will provide large modules and transportation via its reusable heavy-lift New Glenn rocket. Sierra Space will supply its inflatable Large Integrated Flexible Environment modules and transport crew and cargo via its Dream Chaser spaceplane, which can land on standard runways.Boeing will deliver a science module and its Starliner crew spacecraft, and will oversee station operations and maintenance engineering.

Redwire Space will provide research, development and manufacturing in space, including payload operations and deployable structures.

Genesis Engineering Solutions is developing a small, person-sized craft that will allow routine operations and tourist excursions without a spacesuit.

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ASU will help build an 'office park' space station | KJZZ - KJZZ