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The Axiom Module will use one port when docked to the International Space Station, but will provide... [+]
Axiom Space, a Houston-based commercial space startup, will build the world’s first, privately-funded commercial space station --- an incredibly economical, for-profit $1.5 billion replacement for the $100 billion International Space Station (ISS) which ceases operation in 2024.
The plan is for Axiom to initially hitch a module to the ISS before becoming a stand-alone station itself that will play host to a seven member crew of both professional astronauts, researchers and space tourists as well as manufacturing and research entities.
Axiom hopes to reduce the existing ISS’ massive construction costs by using as much off the shelf, plug and play space architecture and equipment as possible.
The station will likely ultimately be comprised of at least seven elements including multipurpose, manufacturing, power and propulsion modules and nodes, Amir Blachman, Axiom's Vice President of Strategic Development, told me.
Axiom’s on-orbit business will consist of hosting what it terms government-funded sovereign astronauts from a wide range of countries; private companies, and individuals for research and manufacturing; space exploration systems testing, and space tourism.
Two manufacturing on-orbit manufacturing possibilities stand out --- that of advanced fiber optics and protein crystals for pharmaceuticals, says Blachman. He says the on-orbit manufacture of ZBLAN fibers --- a family of glasses used for ultra-high throughput fiber optics --- would be one of the station’s mainstays.
Blachman also says proteins grown in low-earth orbit expand in three dimensions and form nearly perfect crystals. This, he says, would allow the Axiom station to provide bio-researchers with new insights into treatments related to allergic and inflammatory reactions, as well as Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
As for the Axiom station’s $1.5 billion cost?
Axiom says it has already raised enough capital to complete feasibility and integration work and to operate the company several years.
However, station construction and mission costs, says Blachman, will be funded by additional equity investment and customer proceeds as we start providing astronaut training services and receive down payments on astronaut and tourist missions.
Blachman says Axiom is considering SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launcher to place the first module in low-Earth orbit (LEO), but notes that the startup hasn’t yet signed any launch contracts.
As for NASA's interest in all this? Blachman says the agency is wholeheartedly onboard with a commercial space station initiative. That’s in part, he says, because NASA has to spend $3.5 billion of its current rather static $19 billion budget each year simply to maintain the station. That’s likely money, says Blachman, that the U.S. space agency would prefer to spend on deep space mission programs.
Although it may seem counter-intuitive that an Earth-orbiting commercial space station could advance the cause of deep space missions, Blachman says, ironically, that's an area in which the Axiom station should help. As he points out, long duration interplanetary travel requires a plethora of testing of life support systems; guidance, navigation and control systems; as well as radiation shielding. All of which could be done onboard this new station.
As for Axiom Space’s tentative roadmap?
The company expects to start training astronauts this year and launch the first astronauts and tourists to the ISS by 2020. By 2021, the company says it will send up the Axiom station’s first modules. Construction of the Axiom station is due to be finished by 2024 , the same year the ISS will be decommissioned.
The Axiom station will then separate from the existing station and begin what could be a 30-year tenure at an average Earth-orbiting altitude of 250 miles.
