Space is cold; I wonder if they could find a material that is inflatable at room temp but would quickly harden in space, so they would inflate it using warm gas, then wait for it to cool down.
NASA temperature conditions for flight hardware is as follows: LEO -65 ºC to +125 ºC, with 6,000 cycles/yr depending on orbit height. GEO is -196 ºC to +128 °C, with 90 cycles/yr.
That is some serious Thermal stress. Never mind the fact that it is also being blasted with UV radiation.
Yes, of course. I was wondering if there are materials that once cooled down would harden but then remain as such also when temperature rises again. Assuming it's doable, it would likely suffer from dilation and contraction anyway.
