When the name of Robert Bigelow comes to mind, it is strongly associated with the growing development of commercialized space travel for the private sector while promoting space tourism in general. He has become prominent in society’s eye due to the successful initial launching of Bigelow Aerospace’s Genesis I-an inflatable space module used as a prototype for the upcoming commercial space stations.

A strong man who has no problem getting things done, he is a severe critic of the NASA agency, stating that commercialization of space is about business. NASA is a federal agency which is basically tax exempt from paying taxes, yet brings in over $14 million a year without paying a tax. He feels that NASA feels they “own all space”, stating their logo should be saying “NASA Standards for No Access to Space for Americans” as they seem to think everything in space should have a lock and control on it all.

Commercialization of Space

Commercialization of space is an important goal to Robert Bigelow for several reasons. Interested in space since he was 15 years of age, he has lived in a world where the Russian space program and NASA controls the restricted privileges of space-as compared to tourists and private companies. Robert Bigelow filed an application in order to build a space station promoting the unheard of commercialized interest for the private sector.

Bigelow licensed a plan from NASA-an inflatable technology called “TransHab”– in order to populate space with his company’s habitable complexes. In order to push his application through the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval process in the most secure way possible, he hired a Washington law firm attorney Patton Boggs to do it. With his three-story space module open for everyone, the entire idea is about making space available to all.

The Man of Many Hats

Robert Bigelow is known for his excessive contributions to many areas in addition to space tourism-he studied banking and real estate ventures, where he was the developer of the Budget Suites hotel chain in Texas, Nevada, and Arizona where he eventually made his fortune, and is considered the largest funder of paranormal research in the United States. He also founded another organization, the National Institute for Discovery Science which researches UFO and the paranormal.

The largest share of his money has gone to develop the Bigelow Physics Building, in addition to the UNLV Bigelow Chair of Consciousness Studies-with the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV) receiving the lion’s share of his many donations. He believes in “rational investigation of the mysteries of human awareness, including the possibility of the persistence of consciousness after death” upon which he dedicated to the UNLV Bigelow building.
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