The National Space and Toy Truck Consortium exists to foster cooperation between
manufacturers and scientific users of miniaturized vehicles. The benefits of such
cooperation are many:
- Scientific missions can take advantage of existing commercial technology. Substantial
cost savings can result from, in effect, not reinventing the wheel.
- The consortium opens technology channels whereby advanced technology developed for space
exploration can appear rapidly in toy stores everywhere.
- Close cooperation between users and manufacturers reduces incidents of forgotten or
wrong-sized batteries (a particular problem in off-world environments).
- Rocket scientists avoid devilish problems of early-morning, launch-date assembly.
- There is substantial opportunity for government users to reduce procurement costs,
possibly below one million dollars per vehicle.
- Manufacturers see significant opportunity for increased margins on consumer products,
achieving sales prices possibly above thirty-five dollars per vehicle.