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The Automated Transfer Vehicle or ATV is a European Space Agency spacecraft designed to supply the International Space Station with propellant, water, air, payload experiments and the like. In addition, the ATV can re-boost the station, restoring its orbit that shrinks over time due to friction with the atmosphere. It is an unmanned spacecraft launched with an Ariane 5 from Kourou, French Guiana. After approximately 2 days of autonomous transfer flight it arrives at the International Space Station and docks automatically to the Russian Service Module Zvezda.
The design
The ATV is designed at least partially as a replacement for the Progress spacecraft, though with three times its capacity. Like the Progress it carries both bulk liquids and relatively fragile freight which is stored in a cargo hold kept in a pressurized shirtsleeve environment so that astronauts can have access to it without putting on a suit. Again like the Progress, the ATV will be serving at the same time as a container for the station's waste.
Each ATV weighs 20 metric tonnes at launch and has a cargo capacity of 9 metric tonnes:
- 1500 to 5500 kg of dry cargo (re-supply goods, scientific payload, etc.),
- Up to 840 kg of water,
- Maximal 100 kg of gas (nitrogen, oxygen, air, 2 gases per flight),
- Up to 4700 kg of propellant for the re-boost manoeuvre and refueling the Station. The ATV propellant also used for re-boost (monomethylhydrazine fuel and nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer) is of a different type from the payload Russian refueling propellant (UDMH fuel and N2O4 oxidizer).
After undocking the ATV is led to a controlled burn-up in the atmosphere, along with up to 6.5 metric tonnes of waste.
Industrial organization for development and production
The Prime Contractor of the ATV is EADS SPACE Transportation, leading a consortium of many sub-contractors. The prime contractor office is currently located in Les Mureaux, France, and will be transferred to Bremen, Germany, once the development is completed and the production of the six recurring models starts. In order to facilitate the relationship between the Prime Contractor and ESA, an integrated ESA team at the Les Mureaux site has been established for the duration of the development.
The first ATV, whose construction is now complete, is expected to be launched during the second half of 2007. It is called the Jules Verne, in memory of the first science fiction writer of modern times. Contracts and accords have been signed for six more ATVs, which should be launched about once every year. EADS SPACE Transportation shall build these 6 ATVs in its Bremen facility, where the Jules-Verne has already been assembled, beginning in 2007.
To this end, RSC-Energia has signed a 40 million euro contract with one of the main subcontractors of EADS SPACE Transportation, the Italian company Alenia Spazio, to supply the Russian Docking System, refuelling system, and Russian Equipment Control System. Within the EADS SPACE Transportation led project, Alenia Spazio is in charge of the pressurized cargo carrier of the ATV. These pressurized cargo carriers are produced in Turin, Italy.
The HTV, an ATV analog
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA is currently working on a similar vehicle, the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) to resupply the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) on the ISS, as well as the rest of the station if need be. Unlike the ATV, the HTV would berth to Node 2 of the ISS.
Abandoned ATV Evolution projects
The European Space Agency was studying potential evolutions and adaptations of the ATV, following the decision by NASA to retire the Space Shuttle around 2010. These evolutions have now all been dropped.
Most of the studies were focused on the adaptation of the ATV in order to allow cargo return to Earth's surface.
A first study was called PARES (PAyload REtrieval System), and would have included a small ballistic capsule similar to VBK-Raduga and 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 was also proposing the system for use with the Progress spacecraft and the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV).
The CARV (Cargo Ascent and Return Vehicle) study was investigating a larger lifting capsule, capable of bringing back a few metric tonnes of payload, which could have been installed in place of the ATV pressurized cargo hold.
Such vehicles could have been available by 2010. However, the financial situation of ESA led to a priority given to PARES over the CARV. But finally, the PARES was not proposed by ESA for approval at the latest Ministerial conference of ESA.
Possibility of launch of the ATV on other launchers than Ariane 5 have also be investigated, in particular in the frame of COTS, but NASA chose to go for a US-only solution.
External links
- ESA's description of the ATV
- Space.com's Progress Made for Launch of Europe's Delayed ATV
- Alenia Spazio to build 6 ATVs
- ATV Integrated Cargo Carrier
- First ICC
- ATV spacecraft subassembly
- European companies working on ATV
International Space Station | European Space Agency | Unmanned resupply spacecraft
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"Automated Transfer Vehicle"