The HTV

JAXA Release Details Of HTV
While the whole International Space Station hangs on the shuttle mission, JAXA have released their idea of supplying the ISS.


This is the HTV 1/20th Model:

I've seen this object sittng in one of the foyers in Tsukuba. The model has moving sections when you press a switch up front.

This is how the HTV will be launched, on the the H-IIB rocket:


The HTV module is much heavier than any of the other pay-loads JAXA have fired into orbit. It's certainly rated to be beynd the capacity of the current H-IIA rocket system. Hence the development work going into the successor.

Once the HTV is launched and detached, it docks with the ISS:



...at one of the nodes.



What's really interesting about the HTV is that it has a pressurised section and a non-pressureised section. Once in docking position, people on the ISS can get into the HTV's pressurised section as one of the modules of ISS. Then there is the de-pressurised section which can be exposed to the hard vacuum.
This is a mock up of the actual HTV



When I was there, they were laying in and testing electrical circuitry in this thing.
Now that I see these photos, I'm kind of a little nostalgic about my time there in Tsukuba. I was so exhausted by the end of the trip and it was the last location so I couldn't wait to get out of there; but looking back and seeing these photos, I kind of regret not pestering for more information.