The EXIF states that it was taken on February 2nd, 2015. I'm counting 5 PCM. Which would imply CRS-5 to CRS-9!
Quote from: baldusi on 08/12/2015 07:54 pmThe EXIF states that it was taken on February 2nd, 2015. I'm counting 5 PCM. Which would imply CRS-5 to CRS-9!This would have been taken before the Orb-4 PCM shipped correct? So we're seeing PCM's for Orb-4 through Orb-8e (assuming these are all flight units).It's very possible there are more PCMs somewhere at Thales: on the most recent earnings call, OrbATK said they had 2 additional missions. I'm assuming that means we'll see 8e and 9 for sure, and possibly Orb-10?
NASA ordered two more cargo deliveries to the International Space Station from Orbital ATK under a 2008 Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract, a company spokeswoman said Aug. 12.
I wonder now if part of the driver for that recent Atlas order was to move more volume uphill quickly to free up later Antares flights for the extended contract.
This FISO podcast was about German ideas for DSH and using it for artificial gravity experiments. http://spirit.as.utexas.edu/~fiso/telecon/Derz-Hill_6-17-15/One possible use of Cygnus post CRS mission is to do tethered artificial gravity experiment. Would another space craft to tether to, this could be a Cygnus from a previous CRS mission. Alternatively a Dragon, in which dragon may carry the experiments as the can be directly returned to earth. As one of the listeners pointed out, it is not just about testing life sciences but also how equipment would work in lunar or mars gravity.
Would it be possible to make a Cygnus variant with a wider and taller PCM and launch it on an AV 551, to gain back something approaching ATV upmass capability?
Update presentation by Frank Culbertson: