ILC Dover's Inflatable Habitat Survives 250 Days in the Antarctic

September 15,  2008 - Frederica, Delaware - A lightweight inflatable habitat, designed and fabricated at ILC Dover LP in Frederica, Delaware, was deployed in January at McMurdo Station, Antarctica in collaboration with NASA Johnson Space Center and the National Science Foundation.  To date it has survived 250 days of successful operation in the frigid Antarctic winter.  This milestone proves the durability of inflatable structures in harsh environments.  The project was funded in 2007 by a NASA Headquarters Innovative Partnership Program (IPP) and involved collaboration between Johnson Space Center, ILC Dover, and the National Science Foundation.

The main purpose of the project is to demonstrate the performance characteristics of a deployable habitat in an extreme environment.  This will help NASA prepare for the return to the moon and construction of a lunar outpost.  "Testing the inflatable habitat in one of the harshest, most remote sites on Earth gives us the opportunity to see what it would be like to use for lunar exploration," said Paul Lockhart, Director of Constellation Systems for NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, Headquarters, Washington.

NASA installed numerous instruments and cameras which have been constantly monitoring the performance of the inflatable structure during the harsh Antarctic winter.  The structure has performed well even after being exposed to months of recorded temperatures as low as -75F and winds gusting to 50 knots.