The Common Modular Spacecraft Bus (CMSB) is a spacecraft concept being developed by the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA. The CMSB is being designed to be compatible with lunar surface, Mars orbit, asteroid surface, and Earth orbit missions. The system is relatively unique, because it uses a cold gas propulsion system rather than a hot combustion rocket. This only allows a few seconds of flight in Earth gravity, but that is sufficient to demonstrate the principles of the propulsion system. It also drastically reduces the time required to recover, refuel and prepare the CMSB for repeated flights. Traditional rockets may require weeks or months to refurbish and refly, while the CMSB testbed can be reflown within an hour.
This video shows some of the CMSB hover flight tests from late 2007 and early 2008. I thought some of you might be interested.
-dave
(I also must commend the flight team on their choice of wardrobe, as can be observed in the second scene.
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