Elon Musk has done it again. The billionaire continues to break barriers in the world of technology. Not content with Amazon’s delivery service and the revolution brought about by Jeff Bezos’s company, Musk has now created a way to ship packages anywhere in the world in 60 minutes. It’s a new orbital transport system called Arc Spacecraft, which promises to deliver packages to any point on Earth in just one hour. The company claims the device can transport up to 225 kilograms of cargo from its orbit to virtually any location on Earth.
The company was founded in 2021 by Justin Fiaschetti, who interned in propulsion at companies like SpaceX, and Austin Briggs
This new project is directly linked to Elon Musk, as one of the key figures behind the idea was a SpaceX intern. Inversion is a young aerospace company based in Los Angeles (USA) that has just unveiled Arc, a spacecraft designed to provide urgent transport services from Earth orbit. The company was founded in 2021 by Justin Fiaschetti, who interned in propulsion at companies like SpaceX, and Austin Briggs, while they were both students at Boston University.
The convergence of the AI revolution, robotics/machine learning, and space development is transforming the world as we know it, disrupting major industries through innovative systems. Inversion unveiled the prototype during a recent event at its facilities. The company’s idea for Arc is to keep these spacecraft in orbit for years, so they are ready to descend when needed.
The creators claim that the Arc spacecraft can reach any location
Thus, Arc Spacecraft is presented as a creation of Inversion, the Los Angeles-based aerospace startup. “The nominal mission for us is to pre-position Arcs in orbit and have them remain there for up to five years, so they can be called in and then autonomously land wherever and whenever needed, delivering their cargo or supplies to the desired location in under an hour,” Fiaschetti explained in an interview with Ars Technica. The creators claim that the Arc spacecraft can reach any location in under an hour and achieves what other transportation systems have failed to do. According to Inversion, Arc is not just a delivery transportation system, but the beginning of something unprecedented: a space age in logistics.
The spacecraft’s features are very interesting. Arc is a fully reusable spacecraft roughly the size of a large dining table (2.4 meters high by 1.2 meters wide). It’s a global network powered by a cutting-edge orbital infrastructure that will soon be able to traverse the Earth at unprecedented speeds. The creators suggest this could be a valuable feature when air transport and ground logistics fail in critical situations, such as when resupplying resources on the battlefield or diverting medical and humanitarian aid supplies from the areas that need them most. In this sense, it could be an effective way to showcase the utility of this technology, which aims to revolutionize the future (almost present) of shipping.
Before Arc Spacecraft becomes a reality, it must undergo a series of flight tests
Speaking from a purely technical standpoint, the spacecraft doesn’t require a runway, as the project’s creators explain. It descends by parachute, and thanks to its propulsion system’s use of non-toxic materials, it can be handled immediately after landing safely and without the need for protective equipment. There don’t seem to be any loose ends in this revolutionary project. The prototype work on Inversion’s pioneering spacecraft, known as Ray, has already been completed, at a cost of $1 million. According to Inversion, the prototype demonstrated that a new orbital transportation system could be built for less than the cost of an actual spacecraft. Before the innovative spacecraft, Arc Spacecraft, becomes a reality, it must undergo a series of flight tests, overcome regulatory hurdles, have its hardware reviewed, and even undergo staggered deliveries to demonstrate its landing accuracy.