A plan for a manned spacecraft has been announced by the European firm EADS. Its Astrium division has designed a variant of its space station freighter that could transport astronauts.
They propose to adapt the technology contained in Europe's new space station freighter, known as the Automated Transfer Vehicle, to make a crew ship capable of carrying three people. The ATV, which ferried just under five tonnes of supplies to the orbiting platform in April, is packed with sophisticated navigation, rendezvous and docking technologies. It also has a pressurised section that is "human rated" in the sense that, once docked to the 340km-high station, astronauts can move around inside it safely in just T-shirts.
But the ATV was not built with the intention of transporting humans across space, and a fit-for-purpose capsule would have to be developed to take the place of the current cargo section. In addition, the freighter is a use-once-and-throw-away vehicle - it has no capacity to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere intact. Heat-shield technology would therefore also need to be developed for the capsule, to help it survive the immense temperatures experienced when falling to Earth.
The concept announced on Tuesday has not yet been put formally to European partners who would need to support the venture if it were to proceed under the aegis of ESA.
