Today's Video: SCUBA Tanks and Rapid Prototype Development at ARC

Editor’s note: NASA Ames Research Center has been developing the Modular Common Spacecraft Bus (MCSB). The MCSB is a spacecraft designed to go to a variety of destinations such as lunar surface/orbit, Mars orbit, asteroid missions, and Earth orbit. The MCSB uses a cold gas propulsion system (and some SCUBA tanks) rather than a hot gas rocket. This only allows a few seconds of flight time – but it also reduces the time needed to prepare for repeat flights from intervals of many days – even months – down to around 40 minutes. This allows rapid prototype development to be conducted. The video below shows a series of tests conducted in 2007 and 2008. More to follow.