Jules Verne ATV hatch opening

[canuzzi]

The europeans had chosen an evolutionary development approach for the spaceship. The next step will be around 2015 a version with return-capability. A later version will be manned. It's a modulary platform and can also used for further exploration to the Moon and Mars.

[Shadowsnshades]

It sure is roomy. Congratulations ESA!

[indivum]

The most advanced spacecraft to date.

[philkarn]

Seems a shame to throw this hardware away after just carrying one load of cargo.Why couldn't it be kept as another module on the ISS, for storage if nothing else?

[TALLL85]

they use it for burning the garbage in atmosphere

[ApolloWasReal]

I know, but they don't really have to. The ISS is only at 350 km or so where orbital lifetimes are pretty short. So they could put their garbage into big, lightweight bags with a low ballistic coefficient, toss 'em out the door and they'd re-enter in no time. They wouldn't even be much of a collision hazard once they decay below the altitude of the station. There's very little below 350 km.

[TALLL85]

@ApolloWasReal if you throw it to space its will crash sometime on satellite or the station.this ATV has huge capacity of couple tons and much more than the bags.

i am not sure but i think that its will behave like a soyuz-it cant be too much time in space eveb shut down.

[ApolloWasReal]

If you mean thrown stuff might come back and hit you, you're right - that's a hazard. So don't throw it perpendicular to the orbital plane, as that will bring it right back a half orbit later. Throw it against your velocity vector to put it in an elliptical orbit with an apogee equal to your altitude and a perigee below you. The lower period means when it comes back around in an orbit you won't be there yet.

Better yet, throw it real hard and use the reaction to boost the station's orbit!

[TALLL85]

@ApolloWasReal Sounds great :)

call to nasa and say them.

If nasa dont use it there must be a reason.

Ask them and return me answer.

[chaz720]

@philkarn The ATV can only dock to the aft docking port on Zvezda which is prime real-estate for other craft like Soyuz and Progress, and is the preferred location from which to perform station reboosts. So once ATV exhausts its fuel doing reboosts of its own, it's time to get it out of the way.

[ApolloWasReal]

Thanks, I figured there was a good reason like that. But I do wish there was some longer-term planning to allow the ISS to make better use of those resupply craft. It costs something like $10,000 to get every kilogram of mass into low earth orbit and so it seems a shame to let all that mass just burn up.

[chaz720]

@ApolloWasReal A slightly modified MPLM (which is about the same internal size as an ATV and can be seen at around 0:40 in this video: watch?v=YmANfNBN2JY) will be left on the station as part of the last shuttle mission STS-133 for extra storage space.

[ApolloWasReal]

Interesting, thanks! Every time I see one of their videos, it looks like they have every nook and cranny stuffed with supplies and gear. Sure looks like they can use whatever extra room they can get!

[Dutchdrummer99]

Cool. Good job Europeans. Now make it man rated and launch European Astronauts please.

[ZemplinTemplar]

That went well... :-)

[yes4me]

Yes it is the first automatic docking. Hopefully they will keep doing it by computer instead of doing by hand.

[TECHKLEC]

So, I guess this is its first such docking? BTW, good background music selection!

[synonys]

FBI, IN SPACE... space... space...