Automated Transfer Vehicle - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Automated Transfer Vehicle

Description
Role:	Supply the International Space Station International Space Station The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes... with propellant, water, air, payload and experiments.
Crew:	Unmanned, but human-rated.
Dimensions
Height:	10.3 m (33.8 ft)
Diameter:	4.5 m (14.8 ft)
Launch Payload:	7667 kg (16,902.8 lb)
Return Payload:	None
Mass at launch:	20,750 kg
Pressurized Volume:	48 m³
Electrical Energy
Source:	4 solar panel wings of 4 panels each and 40Ah rechargeable batteries
Size:	total span 22,3 m
Generated Power:	3,800 W
On-board engines
Main engine:	4 x 490N, Aerojet (GenCorp) Model R-4D-11
Thrusters :	28 x 220N for Altitude control & braking, Astrium Lampoldshausen
Performance
Endurance:	Docked with the ISS for six months
Apogee:	400 km
Perigee:	300 km
Inclination:	51.6 degrees
Launch
Location:	ESA's Guiana Space Centre, Kourou Kourou Kourou is a commune in French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America.Kourou is the location of the Guiana Space Centre, France and ESA's main spaceport.-Geography:... in French Guiana French Guiana French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...
Site:	ELA-3
Booster:	Ariane 5 Ariane 5 Ariane 5 is, as a part of Ariane rocket family, an expendable launch system used to deliver payloads into geostationary transfer orbit or low Earth orbit . Ariane 5 rockets are manufactured under the authority of the European Space Agency and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales...

The Automated Transfer Vehicle or ATV is an expendable, unmanned resupply spacecraft

Unmanned resupply spacecraft

Unmanned resupply spacecraft are a special kind of robotic spacecraft that operate autonomously without a human crew, designed to support space station operation...

developed by the European Space Agency

European Space Agency

The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...

(ESA). ATVs are designed to supply the International Space Station

International Space Station

The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...

(ISS) with propellant, water, air, payload and experiments. In addition, ATVs can reboost

Reboost

Reboost is the process of boosting the altitude of an artificial satellite, to increase the time until its orbit will decay and it re-enters the atmosphere...

the station into a higher orbit

Orbit

In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...

.

Two ATV, Jules Verne
Jules Verne ATV
The Jules Verne ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 001 , was an unmanned cargo resupply spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency . The ATV was named after the French science-fiction author Jules Verne...

and Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler ATV
The Johannes Kepler ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 002 , was an unmanned cargo resupply spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency . It was named after the German astronomer Johannes Kepler. The spacecraft was launched on 17 February 2011, on a mission to supply the International Space...

, have already been successfully launched since March 2008. ESA has already contracted suppliers to produce three more ATVs to be flown until 2015. Further developments of the ATV are now being studied by the European space agency and EADS Astrium.

Design

The ATV is designed to complement the Progress spacecraft

Progress spacecraft

The Progress is a Russian expendable freighter spacecraft. The spacecraft is an unmanned resupply spacecraft during its flight but upon docking with a space station, it allows astronauts inside, hence it is classified manned by the manufacturer. It was derived from the Soyuz spacecraft, and is...

, having three times its capacity. Like the Progress, it carries both bulk liquids

Bulk cargo

Bulk cargo is commodity cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities. This cargo is usually dropped or poured, with a spout or shovel bucket, as a liquid or as a mass of relatively small solids , into a bulk carrier ship's hold, railroad car, or tanker truck/trailer/semi-trailer body...

and relatively fragile freight which is stored in a cargo hold kept in a pressurized shirt-sleeve environment

Shirt-sleeve environment

Shirt-sleeve environment is a term used in aircraft design to describe the interior of an aircraft in which no special clothing need be worn. Early aircraft had no internal pressurization, so the crews of those that reached the stratosphere had to be garbed to withstand the low temperature and...

so that astronauts can have access to it without putting on a spacesuit. The ATV pressurized cargo section is based on the Italian-built Multi-Purpose Logistics Module

Multi-Purpose Logistics Module

A Multi-Purpose Logistics Module is a large pressurized container used on Space Shuttle missions to transfer cargo to and from the International Space Station . An MPLM was carried in the cargo bay of a Shuttle and berthed to the Unity or Harmony modules on the ISS. From there, supplies were...

(MPLM), which was a Shuttle

Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...

-carried ‘space barge’ transporting equipment to and from the Station.

The ATV docking system consists of two videometer

Videometer

A videometer is a European designed automatic docking system that guides an Automated Transfer Vehicle towards the docking port of the Russian Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station . The ATV uses relative global positioning system in order to close in on the ISS up to a...

s and two telegoniometer

Telegoniometer

A Telegoniometer is a device for varying the phase relationship among two or more antennae, in an array for purposes of steering the directionality of the array, without physically moving the antennae...

s built by Sodern, a subsidiary of EADS

EADS

The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company N.V. is a global pan-European aerospace and defence corporation and a leading defence and military contractor worldwide...

. Data processing for the rendezvous docking maneuver and emergency abort systems have been designed and manufactered by CRISA

CRISA

Computadores, Redes e Ingeniería, S.A. is a Spanish company founded in 1985 to develop and manufacture electronics and software products for aerospace applications.In 2000, CRISA became part of the EADS Astrium group....

. Additional monitoring data is supplied by a redundant Russian-made antenna built for the Ukrainian-built Kurs

Kurs (docking system)

Kurs is a radio telemetry system used by the Soviet and later Russian space program.Kurs was developed by the Research Institute of Precision Instruments before 1985 and manufactured by the Kiev Radio Factory .- History :...

, an automatic docking system similar to those used on Soyuz manned ferries and on the Progress re-supply ship. Visual imagery is provided by a camera on the Zvezda ISS module.

Also like the Progress, the ATV will additionally serve as a container for the station's waste.

Each ATV weighs 20.7 tonnes at launch and has a cargo capacity of 8 tonnes:
to 5500 kilograms (12,125.4 lb) of dry cargo (re-supply goods, scientific payload, etc.),

Up to 840 kilograms (1,851.9 lb) of water,
Up to 100 kilograms (220.5 lb) of gas (nitrogen, oxygen, air), with up to two gases per flight,
Up to 4700 kilograms (10,361.7 lb) of propellant for the re-boost maneuver and refueling the station. The ATV propellant used for re-boost (monomethylhydrazine
Monomethylhydrazine
Monomethylhydrazine is a volatile hydrazine chemical with the chemical formula CH3 NH2. It is used as a rocket propellant in bipropellant rocket engines because it is hypergolic with various oxidizers such as nitrogen tetroxide and nitric acid...

fuel and N₂O₄
Dinitrogen tetroxide
Dinitrogen tetroxide is the chemical compound N2O4. It is a useful reagent in chemical synthesis. It forms an equilibrium mixture with nitrogen dioxide; some call this mixture dinitrogen tetroxide, while some call it nitrogen dioxide.Dinitrogen tetroxide is a powerful oxidizer, making it highly...

oxidizer
Oxidizing agent
An oxidizing agent can be defined as a substance that removes electrons from another reactant in a redox chemical reaction...

) is of a different type from the payload Russian refueling propellant (UDMH fuel and N₂O₄
Dinitrogen tetroxide
Dinitrogen tetroxide is the chemical compound N2O4. It is a useful reagent in chemical synthesis. It forms an equilibrium mixture with nitrogen dioxide; some call this mixture dinitrogen tetroxide, while some call it nitrogen dioxide.Dinitrogen tetroxide is a powerful oxidizer, making it highly...

oxidizer).

Development

The prime contractor for the ATV is EADS Astrium Space Transportation, leading a consortium of many sub-contractors. Development was started in Les Mureaux

Les Mureaux

Les Mureaux is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the north-western suburbs of Paris from the center.-Transport:...

, France and moved to Bremen, Germany, as the project moved from its development to production stage of the four initial units starts. In order to facilitate the relationship between the contractor and ESA, an integrated ESA team at the Les Mureaux site has been established for the duration of the development.

The first ATV arrived at the ESA spaceport in Kourou

Kourou

Kourou is a commune in French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America.Kourou is the location of the Guiana Space Centre, France and ESA's main spaceport.-Geography:...

, French Guiana

French Guiana

French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...

on 31 July 2007 after a nearly two week journey from Rotterdam

Rotterdam

Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...

harbour and was launched on 9 March 2008.
The Jules Verne was the first ATV to be launched.
EADS Astrium Space Transportation builds the ATVs in its facility in Bremen. Contracts and accords were signed in 2004 for four more ATVs, which should be launched about once every two years, bringing the total order, including Jules-Verne, to five.

To this end, RSC Energia has signed a €

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

40 million contract with one of the main subcontractors of EADS Astrium Space Transportation, the Italian company Alenia Spazio (now Thales Alenia Space

Thales Alenia Space

Thales Alenia Space is an aerospace company born after the Thales Group bought the participation of Alcatel in the two joint-ventures between Alcatel and Finmeccanica, Alcatel Alenia Space and Telespazio.-History:...

), to supply the Russian Docking System, refuelling system, and Russian Equipment Control System. Within the EADS Astrium Space Transportation led project, Thales Alenia Space is in charge of the pressurized cargo carrier of the ATV. These pressurized cargo carriers are produced in Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

, Italy.

In addition to its use by ESA and Russia, the ATV was in the running to service NASA under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services

Commercial Orbital Transportation Services

Commercial Orbital Transportation Services is a NASA program to coordinate the delivery of crew and cargo to the International Space Station by private companies. The program was announced on January 18, 2006...

program. Under the proposal, a joint venture between EADS and Boeing

Boeing

The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...

, an ATV would be launched from Cape Canaveral

Cape Canaveral

Cape Canaveral, from the Spanish Cabo Cañaveral, is a headland in Brevard County, Florida, United States, near the center of the state's Atlantic coast. Known as Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated from it by the Banana River.It is part of a region known as the...

, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, using a Delta IV rocket. Ultimately, it was not awarded a contract.

The development cost of the ATV was approximately €

Euro

1.35 billion, and each ATV spacecraft costs about $

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

300 million, not including launch costs.

Use

ATVs are intended to be launched every 17 months in order to resupply the International Space Station. They use GPS and a star tracker to automatically rendezvous with the Space Station. At a distance of 249 m, the ATV computers use videometer and telegoniometer data for final approach and docking manoeuvres. The actual docking to Zvezda is fully automatic. If there are any last-minute problems, a pre-programmed sequence of anti-collision manoeuvres, fully independent of the main navigation system, can be activated by the flight engineers

Astronautics

Astronautics, and related astronautical engineering, is the theory and practice of navigation beyond the Earth's atmosphere. In other words, it is the science and technology of space flight....

aboard the station.

With the ATV docked, the station crew enters the cargo section and removes the payload. The ATV's liquid tanks are connected to the station's plumbing and discharge their contents. The station crew manually releases air components directly into the ISS’s atmosphere. For up to six months, the ATV, mostly in dormant mode, remains attached to the ISS with the hatch remaining open. The crew then steadily fills the cargo section with the station's waste. At intervals of 10 to 45 days, the ATV’s thrusters are used to boost the station's altitude.

Once its mission is accomplished, the ATV, filled with up to 6.5 tonnes of waste, separates. Its thrusters move the spacecraft out of orbit (de-orbit) and place it on a steep flight path to perform a controlled destructive re-entry

Re-Entry

"Re-Entry" was the second album released by UK R&B / Hip Hop collective Big Brovaz. After the album was delayed in May 2006, the band finally release the follow-up to "Nu Flow" on 9 April 2007...

high above the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

Missions

Designation	Name	Launch date	Result	Re-entry
ATV-001	Jules Verne Jules Verne ATV The Jules Verne ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 001 , was an unmanned cargo resupply spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency . The ATV was named after the French science-fiction author Jules Verne...	9 March 2008	Docked 3 April 2008	29 September 2008
ATV-002	Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler ATV The Johannes Kepler ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 002 , was an unmanned cargo resupply spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency . It was named after the German astronomer Johannes Kepler. The spacecraft was launched on 17 February 2011, on a mission to supply the International Space...	16 February 2011	Docked 24 February 2011	21 June 2011
ATV-003	Edoardo Amaldi Edoardo Amaldi ATV The Edoardo Amaldi ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 003 , is a European unmanned cargo resupply spacecraft named after Italian physicist Edoardo Amaldi. The spacecraft is scheduled for launch in 2012, on a mission to supply the International Space Station with propellant, water, air, and dry cargo...	29 February 2012	No Result (as of yet)	No Re-entry (as of yet)
ATV-004	Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ATV The Albert Einstein ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 004 , is a European unmanned cargo resupply spacecraft named after German-born physicist Albert Einstein. The spacecraft is scheduled for launch in 2013, on a mission to supply the International Space Station with propellant, water, air, and...	February 2013	No Result (as of yet)	No Re-entry (as of yet)
ATV-005	unnamed	February 2014	No Result (as of yet)	No Re-entry (as of yet)

Sources.

Jules Verne

The first flight of the ATV was delayed many times before its launch on 9 March 2008. It was named Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...

, in memory of the first science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

writer of modern times. The Jules Verne carried two of the author's original handwritten manuscripts, to be received by the ISS crew as symbolic tokens of the success of the first flight.

The craft was launched into a 300 kilometres (186.4 mi) orbit

Orbit

In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...

atop an Ariane 5 from the equatorial ELA-3

ELA-3

ELA-3, short for Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 3 , is a launch pad and associated facilities at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guyana. ELA-3 is operated by Arianespace as part of the expendable launch system for Ariane 5 rockets...

launch site at the Guiana Space Centre. The ATV separated from the Ariane rocket and after weeks of tests and orbit adjustments successfully docked in the International Space Station at 14:45 UTC on 3 April 2008.

In the early morning hours of 29 September 2008, the Jules Verne burnt up on entering the atmosphere above an uninhabited section of the Pacific Ocean, southwest of Tahiti.

Johannes Kepler

Launched on 17 February 2011, Johannes Kepler was the heaviest payload ever launched by the European Space Agency and carried 7000 kg of cargo to the ISS.
The first launch attempt on 15 February 2011 had been halted during the final countdown at four minutes from lift off due to an erroneous signal from one of the rocket's fuel tanks.

On 29 April 2011, the engines of the ATV were used to rotate the ISS in order for a Russian Progress supply craft to dock with the station.

Due to the delayed launch of STS-134

STS-134

STS-134 was the penultimate mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program. The mission marked the 25th and final flight of . This flight delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier to the International Space Station. Mark Kelly served as the mission commander...

the mission of Johannes Kepler was extended, and it undocked from the ISS on 20 June 2011. It deorbited a day later on 21 June 2011.

Edoardo Amaldi

The third ATV vehicle arrived in French Guiana in late August 2011, in preparation for launch in early 2012.

ATV Control Centre

ATV missions are monitored and controlled from the ATV Control Centre (ATV-CC) located at the Toulouse Space Centre (CST) in Toulouse

Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. The centre is responsible for all planning and executing of every orbital maneuver and mission task of the ATV, from the moment of separation from its launch vehicle, until it burns up in the Earth's atmosphere. The centre has a direct communication line with the Columbus Control Center

Columbus Control Center

The Columbus Control Centre is the Mission Control Center which is used to control the European Columbus research laboratory, which is part of the International Space Station . The control centre is located at the German Aerospace Center facility in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich, Germany...

(Col-CC) in Oberpfaffenhofen

Oberpfaffenhofen

Oberpfaffenhofen is a village which is part of the municipality of Weßling in the district of Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany. It is 20 kilometers from the city center of Munich....

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. Col-CC provides ATV-CC with access to both the American TDRSS and the European Artemis

Artemis (satellite)

Artemis is a geostationary earth orbit satellite for telecommunications, built for and owned by ESA. The Artemis satellite operates at the 21.5E orbital position....

communication networks in order to communicate with ATV and the space station. ATV-CC will coordinate its actions with NASA's Mission Control Center

Mission Control Center

A mission control center is an entity that manages aerospace vehicle flights, usually from the point of lift-off until the landing or the end of the mission. A staff of flight controllers and other support personnel monitor all aspects of the mission using telemetry, and send commands to the...

(MCC-H) in Houston and the Russian FKA Mission Control Center (TsUP or MCC-M) in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

as well as the ATV launch site at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou

Kourou

, French Guiana

French Guiana

ATV Evolution proposals

Following the decision by NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

to retire the Space Shuttle

Space Shuttle

in 2011, the European Space Agency

European Space Agency

The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...

launched a series of studies to determine the potential for evolutions and adaptations of the ATV. Following these studies the cargo return version (CARV) became a candidate for further development. The goal of this variant is to provide ESA with the capability to transport scientific data and cargo from the ISS

ISS

The ISS is the International Space Station.ISS may also refer to:* I See Stars, an American electronic rock band* ISS A/S, a Danish service company* Idea Star Singer, a Malayalam music reality show by Asianet TV...

to Earth. Beyond this, CARV could be enhanced to become a man-carrying spacecraft which would be launched by an adapted Ariane 5

Ariane 5

Ariane 5 is, as a part of Ariane rocket family, an expendable launch system used to deliver payloads into geostationary transfer orbit or low Earth orbit . Ariane 5 rockets are manufactured under the authority of the European Space Agency and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales...

.

Mini Space Station: The MSS concept is an ATV evolution proposal for the construction of multiple ATVs with two docking ports, one at each end. The current version of the ATV is already prepared for a docking port at the back, with the main propulsion system arranged in a cylindrical fashion leaving room for a tunnel through the middle. This concept would allow Soyuz

Soyuz spacecraft

Soyuz , Union) is a series of spacecraft initially designed for the Soviet space programme by the Korolyov Design Bureau in the 1960s, and still in service today...

, Progress

Progress spacecraft

and other ATVs to dock to the back of the ATV, allowing a steady flow of Russian vehicles using the available docking ports whilst an ATV is docked for an average of around 6 months at a time.
Payload Retrieval System: The PARES would have included a small ballistic capsule similar to VBK-Raduga

VBK-Raduga

The VBK-Raduga capsule is a reentry capsule that was used for returning materials to Earth's surface from the space station Mir. They were brought to Mir in the Progress-M cargo craft's dry cargo compartment...

embedded into the ATV docking interface, which would have brought back a few tens of kilograms of payload. PARES could have featured a deployable heat shield system. The European Space Agency

European Space Agency

The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...

was also proposing the system for use with the Progress spacecraft

Progress spacecraft

and the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV)

H-II Transfer Vehicle

The H-II Transfer Vehicle , called , is an unmanned resupply spacecraft used to resupply the Kibō Japanese Experiment Module and the International Space Station . The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has been working on the design since the early 1990s. The first mission, HTV-1, was originally...

.
Cargo Ascent and Return Vehicle: The CARV would deliver a redesigned capsule, capable of bringing back payload from orbit. It could be installed in place of the ATV pressurized cargo hold. In addition, it could be adapted to dock at the US side of the station. Given the larger docking ports there, it would be possible to transfer complete International Standard Payload Racks (ISPRs) from the ATV to the station, which is not currently possible.

Crew Transport Vehicle: This is another option under consideration. Similar to the CARV variant, this would replace the current Integrated Cargo Carrier

Integrated cargo carrier

Integrated Cargo Carriers were unpressurized flat bed pallet and keel yoke assemblies carried in the Space Shuttle payload bay, but were never removed during flight. Note that External Stowage Platforms 1 thru 3 and ExPRESS Logistics Carriers 1 thru 4 were of similar construction but were intended...

with a pressurized re-entry capsule. A significant difference with the cargo-only variant would be the presence of a Crew Escape System, consisting of a number of booster rockets able to pull the crew capsule away from the launcher (Ariane 5) and/or Service Module in the event of an emergency. The CTV variant of the ATV could be able to seat 4 or 5 crew members.

Possibilities for launching of the ATV on other launchers than the Ariane 5 have also been investigated, in particular in the frame of Commercial Orbital Transportation Services

Commercial Orbital Transportation Services

. ESA and its member states will consider approval for further ATV development in the coming years.

Proposed crewed version

The aerospace company EADS Astrium

EADS Astrium

Astrium Satellites is one of the three business units of Astrium, a subsidiary of EADS. It is a European space manufacturer involved in the manufacture of spacecraft used for science, Earth observation and telecommunication, as well as the equipment and subsystems used therein and related ground...

and the German Space Agency (the DLR

German Aerospace Center

The German Aerospace Center is the national centre for aerospace, energy and transportation research of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has multiple locations throughout Germany. Its headquarters are located in Cologne. It is engaged in a wide range of research and development projects in...

), announced on 14 May 2008 that they would pursue a project to adapt the ATV into a crew transportation system. The craft would be able to launch a 3 man crew beyond LEO

Low Earth orbit

A low Earth orbit is generally defined as an orbit within the locus extending from the Earth’s surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km...

via use of a modified version of the Ariane 5

Ariane 5

rocket and would be more spacious than the Russian Soyuz. A mock-up of the proposed craft was shown at the 2008 International Aerospace Exhibition

Internationale Luft- und Raumfahrtausstellung

-ILA 2004:-ILA 2006:All previous attendance records had been broken at ILA2006. More than 250,000 visitors were recorded at the ILA2006 between 16 and 21 May, including 115,000 trade visitors...

in Berlin. If the project is given ESA approval development will proceed in two stages:

The first stage would see the development of an Advanced Reentry Vehicle (ARV) capable of transporting up to 1,500 kg of cargo from space to earth safely (see CARV above) by 2015. This capability would be available to ESA even if further development were to be halted. It would prove useful in the ISS program as well as the proposed Mars Sample Return Mission
Mars Sample Return Mission
A Mars sample return mission would be a spaceflight mission to collect rock and dust samples from Mars and to return them to Earth for analysis...

with NASA. ARV development would make use of work done on the Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator
Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator
The Advanced Reentry Demonstrator was a suborbital reentry test flown on the third Ariane 5 flight. The ARD was launched on October 21, 1998, and was released shortly after separation of the launcher's cryogenic main stage 12 minutes after lift-off from the Guiana Space Centre, Europe's spaceport...

, Crew Return Vehicle
Crew Return Vehicle
The Crew Return Vehicle , sometimes referred to as the Assured Crew Return Vehicle , is the proposed lifeboat or escape module for the International Space Station...

and related projects. The budget for this stage of the ATV overhaul would reportedly be €300 million.
The second stage would adapt the then existing capsule to be able to transport people safely as well as upgrade the propulsion and other systems in the service module and would last 4 to 5 years at a cost of "a couple of billion (€)" according to a senior Astrium representative.

Subsequent activity

In November 2008, ESA ministers budgeted for a feasibility study into developing a re-entry capsule for the ATV, a requirement for developing either a cargo return capacity or a manned version of the ATV. ESA signed a €21 million study contract with EADS Astrium on 7 July 2009. The ARV effort was discontinued after the B1 stage due to fiscal constraints resulting from the Late-2000s financial crisis

Late-2000s financial crisis

The late-2000s financial crisis is considered by many economists to be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s...

. In May 2011 the ESA director general announced a possible collaboration with NASA to work on a successor to the ATV. A proposal is to be presented to ESA members in 2012. This is likely to involve a design which utilises the ATV derived service module and the NASA MPCV

Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle

The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle is a planned spacecraft that is being built by Lockheed Martin for NASA, the space agency of the United States, based on designs and tests already completed for the Orion spacecraft. The MPCV was announced by NASA on May 24, 2011...

capsule.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Design

Development

Use

Missions

Jules Verne

Johannes Kepler

Edoardo Amaldi

ATV Control Centre

ATV Evolution proposals

Proposed crewed version

Subsequent activity

See also

External links