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Aviation History
1998
1998 - 3395.PDF
SPACEFLIGHT Special delivery Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle will make a significant contribution to the International Space Station TIM FURNISS/LONDON THE COLUMBUS Orbital Facility (COF), a pressurised science laboratory, was until recently the European Space Agency's (ES A) only major contribution to the International Space Station (ISS). Now, development of a fleet of Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATVs) to support ISS opera tions has begun with the award of a $470 million contract to a pan-European industrial team managed by Aerospatiale. The COF is one of the last components scheduled to be docked to the Space Station, probably in about 2003-4. The AFV will not only be launched earlier, but is also considered more technically challenging, giving Europe its first rendezvous and docking experience, albeit with help from Russia. The ATV was given the political go-ahead in October 1995, with the services that the vehicle will provide making up part of ESAk contribu tion to the operating costs of the ISS. The vehicle will be built by an industrial team managed by Aerospatiale and includ ing subcontractors Alenia Spazio, Daimler- Chrysler Aerospace (Dasa) and Matra Marconi Space. It will include rendezvous and docking system components supplied by the Russian Space Agency and RSC Energia. Dasa will be the production prime contractor and will head the project until about 2000, when a transition of overall management to Aerospatiale will take place. The logistics vehicles will be launched on uprated Ariane 5 boosters starting in about 2003, with up to 13 flights expected by2013. ESAk official remit is to provide eight mis sions up to 2012. The ATV will be 10m (33ft) long, 4.5m wide, weigh about 16,000kg (3 5,0001b) fully loaded and have an 18.32m-span solar array. It will dock with the Russian Service Module (to be launched in July) and will supply cargo, such as compressed air and water, and payloads requiring pressurisation such as food, clothing and experiments. The vehicle will also refuel the ISS and provide orbital rcboosting and attitude con trol for the Station. At the end of its six- month stay at the ISS, the ATV will be along with die vehicle during re-entry. The ATV can be likened to an advanced ver sion of the Russian Progress unmanned tanker, which has provided similar resupply services to Russian space stations, starting with Salyut 6 in 1978. A larger Russian Star module was used occasionally, but also provided additional pres surised working space. ATV COMPONENTS The ATV will consist of a systems bus and inte grated cargo carrier. The bus will contain the propulsion and avionics bays and will be inac cessible to the ISS crew. It will incorporate the propulsion system used to provide initial sepa ration from the Ariane 5 and subsequent major orbital manoeuvres, plus the solar arrays. The four arrays can provide 3.8kW of power, but the ATV will be able to draw 300W from the ISS when attached. The electrical system will be augmented by batteries for night orbital passes. The carrier will consist of a pressurised mod ule and the Russian docking system, based on loaded with waste, which will be destroyed Ariane 5's payload shrouds separate, exposing the ATV that used on Progress and Soyuzvehicles.lt will have external bays for the fluid and gas cargoes, plus avionics such as rendezvous sensors, video cameras and antennas. A meteorite and debris protection system will surround the vehicle's primary structure. Europe sees the ATV as the first of a new gen eration of vehicles which may enable the auto matic assembly of structures in orbit, such as elements of a space telescope, or be used as a free-flying experiment base for the ISS, provid ing interference-free microgravity conditions for processing experiments. The ATV will be injected by the Ariane 5 into an orbital plane compatible with the ISS and, shortly after, the solar panels will be deployed. For the next lOOh the ATV will perform phas ing manoeuvres, starting with a perigee-raising manoeuvre at the first orbital high point, or apogee, after separation from the booster's final stage. The operation will be controlled by ESAs centre in Darmstadt, Germany, and will use NASAs Tracking and Data Relay Satellites for S-band communications. A second series of manoeuvres will bring the ATV to ISS altitude.and integrated operations will begin about90min before the vehicle enters its final approach to the Space Station, widi mis sion authority passing to NASAs new ISS con trol centre in Houston, Texas. The ATV will begin its final approach and docking manoeuvres automatically and, after the first telemetry contact between die vehicle and its target cone on the Russian Service Module, will make a final thrust forward for docking, contact triggering the automatic capture sequence. During its six-month stay, the ATV's internal hatch - in the docking system - will remain open to allow the ISS crew to unload cargo through a pressurised tunnel, while the vehicle is in a dormant mode. Up to 850kg of water can be carried, as well as 100kg of oxygen and nitrogen, while diere will be 5,5 00kg of "dry" cargo carried in the pressurised area of the ATV. ISS refuelling will be controlled by the Space Station, the crew performing tight ness checks, line venting, fluid transfer and line purging. Propellants tanks will be in the exterior module of the ATV cargo car rier and will carry 305kg of fuel and 555kg of oxidiser. Refuelling may be done in increments, one propellant at a time. The ATV will be reactivated during the attitude and reboost operations, which use the four 1101b (490N) dirusters of the main propul sion system or the twenty 2 2 ON thrusters of the attitude control system. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 16 - 22 December 1998 45
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