Tour The Bouncy Castle That Will Be Shipped To Space

NASA/Bill IngallsAstronauts on the International Space Station will get a fun addition to their space home-away-from-home in 2015. Their new annex is an inflatable balloon to be clamped to the side of the ISS first as a test, then be used as extra storage room.

Earlier this year NASA announced the addition, which they say will help us better understand how humans can explore and live in space. Inflatable houses as the future of space colonization? Yup, that's what we are talking about here.

Bigelow Aerospace got $17.8 million to develop the technology, NASA deputy Administrator Lori Garver said in a press release issued Jan. 16. They've named the inflatable room the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), and it is ultimately intended to be a habitat for astronauts on long-duration stays in space.

Check out some photos of the gear and launch from NASA. Also, Bigelow shared images of the habitat, and their plan for the future of expandable activity modules, with us.