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Space truck set for maiden voyage

flux_29

flux_29

Commodore
Commodore
"The most sophisticated spacecraft in its history"

The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is an unmanned ship that can carry up to 7.6 tonnes of supplies to the International Space Station (ISS).
Its other primary role is to push the orbiting outpost higher into the sky to keep it from falling back to Earth. The ATV will launch on an Ariane 5 rocket from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana at 0403 GMT on Sunday.

The most notable is the ATV's automatic rendezvous and docking technology - the ship can find its own way to the station and attach itself without any human intervention.
Click to expand...

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7278414.stm

http://www.spacetoday.org/SpcStns/ATV/ATV.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_Transfer_Vehicle
 
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Wow! It's quite a bit bigger than the Progress vehicles isn't it?

Also, I bet the Apollo astronauts wished they would have had the ATV cargo area along with their capsule. Although there'd have to be some sort of special hatch between the two as that's where the capsule's heat shield is.

Same thing with the new Orion vehicle. It's ashame that NASA couldn't have figured out how to allow the portion behind the heat shield to be used as living/cargo space. Especially on missions to the moon.
 
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The US Air Force tested a variant of NASA's two man Gemini capsule with a hatch in the heat shield. There were plans to use the Gemini variant as the return craft for an orbital reconnaissance station. Although never flown with a crew, the capsule's heat shield performed properly.

The Progress is an unmanned variant of the long used Soyuz spacecraft. Soyuz not only has an oblong inhabitable module that is ejected before reentry (that top section) it ejects panels from its heat shield seconds before landing so that rockets can provide a last bit of deceleration to make the landing a bit more tolerable.

Those Orion crews will not only have a cabin significantly larger than Apollo's command module, they will have access to the lander on the way to the moon. But let's not forget that added mass for an additional crew habitation module would increase the propellant requirement leaving lunar orbit.

Imagine the 13 days and 18 hours Jim Lovell and Frank Borman spent in the cramped cabin of Gemini 7 (little bigger inside than the front seat of a compact car)!
 
And the launch has been a success, nice to see ESA pushing things a little I guess, but it would be nice to see more efforts made in other forms of exploration.

The BBC image of the launch is a laugh though ;)
 
For those interested, I have it on moderately good authority that a subsequent ATV will be named in honor of Kurd Laßwitz, the 19th century German LitSF writer of Auf zwei Planeten (PDF) fame. :)

TGT
 
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It's a big tin can - but one of the more important ones that will be sent to ISS. As the only real alternative to the cramped Soyuz/Progress and the retiring shuttle, it's a real godsend until the CEV is up and running - and if it ever goes to the station.

Latest reports indicate that Jules is on a backup propulsion mode when its computers shut down one of the vehicle's four propulsion governance devices. The system is fully redundant (and also fully redundant) so there is no real danger of mission loss; also, there's a chance that the ISS crew will be able to visually inspect the ship when it finally docks. She'll be hanging 1200 miles behind ISS until Endeavor comes and goes, but it'll be a fun time to watch actual docking. The closest we've come before this is the Russian Kvant modules on Mir, which did much of the same thing, almost twenty years ago.

Finally, ESA recently let slip some future plans for these modules. While capable of docking only with Russian docking ports (the American/International side uses larger CBM ports which can move whole stowage racks if need be), the ATVs have the option to use a passageway built in to the vehicle; it's not used on Jules Verne. The extra space could be used as a pass-through to another docking port for a subsequent Soyuz or Progress or further ATV; a loading point for a built-in sample return capsule, or extra cargo space. Heck, there's even a possibility to daisy-chain several together to form an independent, small space station! The ATV design is very dynamic compared to Progress, and its uses and low cost are pretty encouraging for current ISS and future commercial endeavors.

Jacked from NSF:

atv1eo5.png

atv2dy9.png

atv3sz5.png


Mark
 
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This is one of the more exciting developments in recent space flight history. Forseveral reasons:

1) Designed, launched and operated by someone other then US/Russia - we need more countries involved in peaceful space endeavors. In my personal opinion, we won't see real space development until private industry gets involved. The fact that NASA is still the only major player in the US boggles my mind. Although there are a few private ventures that are going to be exciting to follow over the next 5 years.

2) Inexpensive, relatively speaking.

3) Multi-mission adaptability

4) Relieves some of the reliance on the shuttle for bigger cargo loads and as stated above, provides a stop gap between the shuttle and Orion.

Way to go ESA...oh and glad to see they got the thruster glitch worked out.
 
If the ESA can be successful with this thing, I would think that manned launches could be in the long-range plan for them. The ATV's tech gets them more than halfway there.
 
Not with the ATV design they don't. I don't see how it could be easily modified into a crew return vehicle without taking another module onto the design. ESA doesn't have that much experience with re-entry vehicles, and after the shuttles there isn't much out there in terms of large capsule design. It's be completely new ground IMO.

Mark
 
Well, you just have to take the claim literally. The ATV is halfway there - the way up. The way down is a different matter...

Although I'd hate to launch people in the ATV, which has no escape system, I gather it could be done if there were a pressing need. However, most of the pressing needs today would probably actually involve getting people down from up there. But return from Earth orbit shouldn't really be that big a deal. Something primitive and barely steerable could be rigged up by a nation or organization that knows little about spaceflight. The challenge is in developing something that is lightweight, properly steerable, and potentially also reuseable, and can bring down large loads.

Timo Saloniemi
 
And don't forget cheap. NASA killed the original CRV "escape capsule" due to station cost overruns. If we're lucky, they MIGHT spring a CEV-derived capsule on us, but that won't be before the end of ISS funding in 2015. Most people believe that NASA and the international community will continue paying for station operations after this, but until someone passes the bill in congress, ISS is stuck with only as many crew as soyuz can dock to the station at a time.

Mark
 
I often wonder what is going to happen with the ISS. What is the long term plan for it once it is built?

Honestly, I almost see it as being forgotten as time goes on - especially once there are no more shuttle missions. Sort of like the later Apollo missions. We know they are going on, but totally out of the public's mindset.
 
It'll go the same way as Mir. But i don't think this will happen untill after the moon landings - NASA having it as a safety net or somthing. :)
 
The curent plan is for the station to become "core complete" (that is, to have all completed or currently-building modules delivered and assembled on orbit) by 2010, and to immediatedly retire the space shuttle. NASA is then budgetted for five years of ISS operations and science, maintaining crew and logistics by Soyuz, European ATV, Japanese H-II and POSSIBLY an American private resupply vehicle. NASA's resources will be committed to getting the CEV up and running with flights hopefully by 2014-5. Currently, while the CEV wuill be built for it, there are no real plans for CEV flights to ISS.

This is all likely to change. Mir was designed for a five-year mission and it lasted 14; assuming no horrific accidents to recover from (like Mir's near-fatal collision and fires), there's no reason for ISS not to last to 2020 or later with proper supply and repair. If and when funcding is allocated to keeping ISS aloft, I'm sure CEV will be tasked to join the other partners in crew swapout and supply missions in addition to the lunar missions. ISS has no real role in the lunar program.

There HAVE been plans made for the Russian side of ISS should NASA decide to terminate at 2015; while not cemented, it WOULD be possible to disconnect and de-orbit only the US, European and Japanese modules, and continue on with just the Russian modules with some additional solar power. The Russian side contains all the rocket motors, life support, and facilities to make a viable space station for science missions.
 
I've read NASA materials that list six passenger and cargo versions of the Orion CEV. Since the lunar version would only have a four man crew I don't see what other use the six person and cargo versions would serve unless the destination would be ISS or a similar facility. The use of solar panels for the service module's electrical power generation would also be useful for long term parking on one of the ISS docking ports. The cryogenic oxygen and hydrogen that fuel cells require wouldn't be useful for long term parking.

BTW: I've read reports that the shuttle's airlock/docking module requires a different docking port than those compatible with the Soyuz manned spacecraft and remote operated Progress supply vehicle. The ports connecting the Unity and Harmony modes to the labs, one of the airlocks and the mating adapter (for the shuttle) are a third type.
 
Acording to the BBC the ATV has parked itself 2000km from the station, and won't dock untill the shuttle has left.
 
This is correct; while docking is supposed to be automatic (as it is with the Progress suppply ships), this is the frst time the ATV will be tested and a series of docking maneuvers is planned to be executed automatically and manually, with the ISS crew observing. As the crew (and the shuttle personel) are busy with station assembly and repair, the shuttle will first leave before everyone on the ISS can fous on the arrival of ATV.

CEV is designed to carry cargo, but the big issue here is that ANYTHING that is going up or coming back essentially has to be in grocery bag sized boxes and sachels. The PMA docking mechanism currently used by the shuttle and to be used by the CEV has a very small diameter, and is used only for people and small items to crawl through. This is generally not a problem, though it means that ISS can't ship down or swap out any of its standard lab racks anymore, once the shuttle is retired. The shuttle was built to carry bus-sized pressurized logistics modules that are lifted from the cargo bay by the Canadarm, and attached to one fo the station's larger CBM docking ports. The much larger doors to these modules would have allowed objects as large as four high school lockers strapped together to be moved around, delivered, and returned to Earth.

The ATV only has a Russian docking interface on it, and is designed to attach only to the aft end of the station - they will use it there to boost the orbit of the station periodically, saving fuel and rocket wear on the station's own thrusters. The Progress ships also do this.

Mark
 
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