Sundancer - Systems and Configuration

Systems and Configuration

Sundancer will be equipped with full life support systems, attitude control, orbital maneuvering systems, and will be capable of reboost and deorbit burns. Like the Genesis pathfinders, Sundancer will launch with its outer surface compacted around its central core, with air expanding it to its full size after entering orbit. After expansion, the module will measure 8.7 metres (28.5 ft) in length and 6.3 metres (20.7 ft) in diameter, with 180 cubic metres (6,357 cu ft) of habitable interior volume. Unlike previous Bigelow craft, it will feature three observation windows, and will be equipped with a Soyuz-type docking system on one end of the craft and a NASA-developed International Low Impact Docking System on the other.

Sundancer's propulsion system will initially be used to boost the module into a high orbit for long duration testing and will later lower it back into an orbit reachable by manned spacecraft. The module utilizes a redundant propulsion design for its attitude control and de-orbit systems, with each propulsion system featuring a different form of propellant. Aerojet provided the hypergolic Aft Propulsion System (APS), with Andrews Space building the APS electronic controllers. Dynetics, formerly Orion Propulsion, created the Forward Propulsion System (FPS), which uses hydrogen and oxygen by-products from the Sundancer life support system.

Bigelow Aerospace is also considering an option to include lights on the exterior of the spacecraft, potentially visible from Earth, which would be a furtherance of the projection system currently flying aboard Genesis II. Robert Bigelow noted in an interview that "if you have some blue and green and amber-colored lighting going on, you would have something that really has a lot of blink to it."