Getting a TRV from the Space Station back to Earth. Credit: Intuitive Machines (some images courtesy of NASA)
Posted on 10/27/2014 7:58:36 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The TRV represents a collaborative effort between NASA and CASIS, the non-profit Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, which was recently endowed with the responsibility of making sure that we make good use of the US laboratory aboard the ISS. Towards this end, they have contracted with Intuitive Machines – a Texas-based private space firm – to create a return vehicle that will enable the on-demand, rapid return of experiments from the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory.
“I believe with this new ‘on demand’ delivery capability for returning scientific samples to earth we will extend the viability of the ISS National Laboratory as a research platform for commercial benefit,” Bibby Joe, the president of Intuitive Machines, told Universe Today via email. “The principle investigators and scientists engaged in microgravity research in space can now begin to imagine new and different experiments and methodologies enabled by returning samples on a nearly daily basis and landing them precisely and gently on the Earth.”
The proposed TRV is a small, wingless capsule that can be loaded up with samples and ejected from the airlock in the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), guaranteeing delivery back to Earth in under 24 hours. From the outside, the design looks a little like the Space Shuttle, or the Boeing X-37B space plane. Minus the stubby wings, of course.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Our satellites did this routinely all the way back in the 1960’s.
Escape pods.
fed ex should have paid hundreds of millions for the opportunity to paint their logo on the said of that thing. the marketing value would have been incalculable.
Amazon will be doing this.
It's cool and I'm not knocking it, but conceptually, a third grade could have thought it up.
Just what I thought.
[prolonged reverb]
AMAZON ... IN ... SPAAAAACE!
Any item you want, delivered today.
(Warning: re-entry capsule may be hot.)
For some reason the phrase “fire photon torpedos” keeps popping in my head. =^)
CC
Glad to see it's not a lost "art", as so many other abilities have become.
When it absolutely positively has to get there overnight...
“Neither Snow nor Rain, nor Lack of Atmosphere ....”
But what happens if the item doesn’t fit and you have to return it?
House gets NASA sky light film at 11:00.
...and "lost in transit" takes a whole new meaning...
and how about some "misdirection"....like a bock of pig feet delivered to somewhere in Mecca.
At a cost of $10,000 per pound to get the packages into orbit, I'm thinking UPS Same Day service will be exponentially cheaper.
>returning samples on a nearly daily basis
How many hundreds of these are on the ISS? How much $ per copy?
I thought I read somewhere that the cost is closer to $250,000 per pound.
ditto
I could very well be quoting old sources. The point is, how the hell are Amazon-like vendors going to get these packages up there in the first place? Makes no sense for same day delivery since getting the package in place would take weeks at the minimum.
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