Look at what the Air Force Research Lab packed into its test pods on SpaceX's Starfall capsule. Sensors, a satellite tracker, batteries, a water desalinator, survival gear and a medical kit. Engineers also checked that a life raft fits inside. Every item on that list is for someone stranded at sea or cut off after a disaster. It's still a research test. But a capsule that comes down from orbit with medicine and a way to make fresh water could reach places a truck or a ship can't get to for days.