The base itself would be fabricated in space, with consideration being given to crewmembers piloting the entire base directly onto the moon's surface.

"I see a huge sea change in using expandable systems," Bigelow told SPACE.com in an exclusive interview. "I feel this architecture is fundamentally safer, less expensive, and can save an awful lot of time." [Future moon base photos.]

Bigelow founded Bigelow Aerospace in 1999, headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, drawing upon his construction, real estate, and hotel know-how to pioneer the use of expandable space structures. To date he has dedicated over $180 million to his visionary quest.

Two prototype space modules built by Bigelow Aerospace are now circuiting the Earth. Lofted in July 2006 and in June 2007, respectively, the company's Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 expandable modules served as forerunners to ever-larger and human-rated space structures.

Bigelow's moon visions come at a time when NASA is overhauling its plans for human spaceflight and planning to depend more on commercial space companies for future hardware and spacecraft.

On Thursday, U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to announce the revival of NASA's cancelled Orion spacecraft to serve as a crew escape ship for the International Space Station, as well as guidelines for a heavy-lift rocket capable of launching heavy payloads into space.

Beyond low Earth orbit

"We want to go to the moon . . . and the expandable habitats are a good example of an enabling technology that will be leveraged to bring this vision to fruition," said Michael Gold, Director of Washington, D.C. Operations & Business Growth for Bigelow Aerospace, LLC, based in Chevy Chase, Md. "Our goal has always been beyond low Earth orbit."

Gold said that Bigelow Aerospace has been aggressively establishing an international consortium of what the group terms as "sovereign clients" — along with hammering out the financial and legal structure, he said, for such partnerships to blossom, first in low Earth orbit and then beyond.

"We need to make low-Earth orbit work first before we go beyond . . . but I believe we will," Gold told SPACE.com. "Once we've established a robust infrastructure in Earth orbit, created the economies of scale necessary to produce facilities in low Earth orbit . . . at that point, we've really enabled ourselves to look at a variety of options."