Slashdot Mirror
Discovery To Bring "Plug and Play" Micro-Lab To ISS
astroengine writes "In an effort to standardize the way we do microgravity experiments, a Kentucky-based non-profit organization has developed the 'CubeLab' (a modular, miniature laboratory) that can be plugged into a rack of 15 other CubeLabs. The first set of micro-labs will be carried to the space station by the shuttle Discovery on Monday morning's launch. The CubeLab's small design allows it to be easily shipped to and from the space station, providing a faster pace of experimentation. Also, its 'plug and play' interface means installation is a breeze. Even better is the fact the CubeLabs are developed by Kentucky students, university researchers and enthusiasts. Now they've teamed up with the Houston-based NanoRacks LLC; could this be the future of space research collaboration?"
You know what's hard to imagine? That the ISS has been orbiting the Earth longer than we've been stewing about how frightfully bad The Phantom Menace is. In fact, George Lucas was able to shit out three terrible movies and that hairy guy was able to make three CGI-rich movies about wizards. Surely we don't need to study again how frogs fuck in zero-g.
In the time since we first started sending astronauts to their fiery dooms on return from the ISS, private enterprise has developed a prototype space vehicle. The allegory goes that the hare loses the race because he sleeps while the slow and steady tortoise never stops. The real moral of the story is not that slow and steady wins the race, it's "don't sleep". And private enterprise has shown that it can develop this technology faster than NASA.
NASA needs to shit or get off the pot. They've spent too long funding experiments to literally watch grass grow and paint dry when we could have been sending more probes across the solar system. The ISS isn't a supply depot, it's a nice shady patch which lulls any passerby into taking a long nap.