Proprietary Inflatable Architecture Can Scale Up to Stadium-sized Habitats in Space
Highlights:
- Max Space designs and manufactures expandable modules to dramatically increase volume in Earth Orbit, cislunar, and on the Moon and Mars for habitation, research, manufacturing, farms, tourism, sports, and entertainment.
- The first Max Space habitat is manifested to fly with SpaceX in 2026. Three space-fidelity ground test units have been built that are currently starting flight qualification testing.
- Max Space expandables can be scaled upwards in size indefinitely–making the company unique by opening the door to large-scale production and reduced flight qualification cost.
- Max Space is co-founded by Aaron Kemmer, former co-founder of Made in Space, the first in-space manufacturing company, and Maxim de Jong of Thin Red Line Aerospace, an industry recognized leader in space inflatable technology and engineering.
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO (Max Space PR) – At a press conference today at the 39th Space Symposium, Max Space, an entrepreneurial new space company, introduced its unique expandable habitat architecture.
Max Space has demonstrated that its proprietary expandable technology can be scaled upwards in size indefinitely while maintaining structural predictability. This attribute makes the company peerless in the space habitation market by opening the door to large-scale production and vastly reduced flight qualification cost.
Twenty-five years of space expandable innovation, research, and testing inform the Max Space habitat design to enable the lowest mass of any other pressurized architecture, whether expandable, aluminum, titanium, or composite—doing so at significant cost savings. The Max Space team’s proven R&D track record, including all parameters for flight testing, has produced a highly refined design conducive to large scale production.
The first Max Space habitat is manifested to fly with SpaceX in 2026. The goal is to have a family of scalable habitats in space, ranging from 20 m3 to 100 m3 to 1000 m3 by 2030. The Max Space expandable architecture offers remarkable scalability, with the potential to scale up to 10,000+ m3 or megastructures which can be singularly launched using Starship and New Glenn once they’re online.
“The problem with space today is there isn’t enough habitable space in space,” said Max Space co-founder, Aaron Kemmer. “Unless we make usable space in space a lot less expensive, and much much larger, humanity’s future in space will remain limited.” Max Space’s scalable modules are readily adaptable to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), cislunar, on the Moon, and ultimately Mars, where predictable, cost-effective volume will be a crucial enabler for human exploration, research, manufacturing, and even entertainment.
“Almost 20 years ago I designed and built the first two inflatable spacecraft pressure hulls, and they are still orbiting Earth to this day,” said Max Space co-founder, Maxim de Jong. “Despite their success, we realized we couldn’t efficiently scale-up to the bigger sizes that we really needed in space. So, after both Genesis craft flew, I took an entirely different design path to ultimately develop an expandable architecture that is fundamentally predictable and infinitely scalable.”
***The Space Page Dot Com Editors Note: “The two Genesis inflatable spacecraft mentioned in the quote above came from the private US company Bigelow Aerospace. That company was founded in 1998 and ceased to exist in 2020. For two decades, Bigelow tried to create inflatable habitats in space. Max Space hopes to exceed Bigelow’s achievements in less time… and timing may be everything.”
About Max Space
Max Space’s innovative expandable space habitats offer high volume at low cost to dramatically increase the volume of usable space in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), cislunar, and on the Moon and Mars. The company is founded by Aaron Kemmer and Maxim de Jong. Aaron is a pioneering space tech entrepreneur who co-founded Made In Space, the first in-space manufacturing company, where he identified the need for cost effective volume in space to further space research and commercialization.
Maxim de Jong is an industry recognized leader in space inflatable technology engineering. Maxim’s company, Thin Red Line Aerospace, designed and fabricated the Genesis I and II inflatable habitat pressure hulls that are still orbiting today. His participation in dozens of NASA programs has focused on space habitation, Planetary Entry Descent and Landing, and spacecraft shielding.
Max Space is supported by notable investors, including Draper Associates, a16z, starlight Ventures, IA Seed Ventures, E2MC Ventures, SpaceFund, VU Venture Partners, Mana Ventures and Strawberry Creek Venture, in addition to customer-funded contracts from the Space Force, DOD and other government and commercial entities.