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I don't think it's very easy to find air in space, though.


Doesn't matter. An airbed will hold its shape with just 0.1 psi of pressure, and that works out to only 0.6 kg of compressed gas for the whole thing.

Once inflated, there are no forces causing it to fold up again, so it doesn't matter if the gas leaks out of holes after years.


Gravity -- it is within the earths gravity well, this force still applies.

Thrusters -- satellites have thrusters to keep it in orbit and to avoid obstacles.

Thus losing pressure will cause the inflatable to lose shape.


Gravity is effectively nil on a satellite - the satellite is within the gravity well, yes, but is constantly falling in a parabolic path, so doesn't feel any gravity. The total forces experienced due to gravity and related forces will be nano-newtons, so irrelevant. They are dwarfed by the drag force.

Thrusters are ion drive thrusters, so have typical forces of 2 milliNewtons (0.2 grams-force). I don't think 2 millinewtons will be sufficient to fold an airbed-like structure, even with 0 internal pressure. (imagine a fly lands on a plastic bag... the fly isn't heavy enough to flatten the bag, even though the bag has no internal structure - a fly is about 0.2 grams).




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