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 ...
Amazing.
I myself cannot get Federal Express or OnTrac to deliver at times to my humble abode.
The original article was about astronauts loading the space drone with completed experiments for return to earth. Some others chimed in about it being a new amazon delivery service.
I looked into the payload cost a few years ago after my son was awarded a Boy Scout merit badge that flew on a shuttle mission. $250 K sticks in my mind.
Actually you’re right. Per Wikipedia, it’s about $8000 per pound.
Our satellites did this routinely all the way back in the 1960’s.
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They would return film canisters that would be snagged by aircraft as they floated down by parachute.
Interesting. Sounds a bit like the low tech but effective way data from satellites used to be returned to earth.
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