Sierra Space on September 20 mentioned The fifth test was carried out by the so-called with the Large Inflatable Module for Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE), or more precisely with its small version. During testing, the pressure was increased until the unit finally ruptured, resulting in the intended destruction of the unit.
However, compared to previous tests, there was an important difference, which was that a metal chassis was placed on the outside of the unit. The painting is intended to represent a window installed in the full-size version to see how the structure affects the strength of the unit. During tensile testing, it was finally revealed that even with this metal plate, the unit could withstand 20% more pressure than the previous test without the plate. Overall, it can be said that the unit currently exceeds the mandatory value of a full-scale LIFE unit by 33%.
As a next step, the company indicated that similar tests will be conducted with the full-scale prototype. So Orbital Reef’s inflatable modules are on track for deployment on a future commercial space station.
