ATV EVOLUTIONS - ESA'S NEXT STEPS IN SPACE

The International Space Station (ISS) depends on regular deliveries of experiment equipment and spare parts, as well as food, air and water for its permanent crew.
Since the arrival of the first vehicle in April 2008, the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is one of the indispensable ISS supply spaceships. It is developed under ESA contract by a European industrial consortium lead by EADS Space Transportation, in France.

Approximately every 17 months, ATV carries 7.7 tonnes of cargo to the Station 400 km above the Earth. An onboard high precision navigation system automatically guides ATV on a rendezvous trajectory towards ISS, where it docks with the Station's Russian service module Zvezda.

The ATV remains attached as a pressurised and integral part of the Station for up to six months. After that it starts its final mission: a so-called destructive re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere during which it breaks up and burns, together with up to 6.4 tonnes of material that is no longer used on the Station.

The very successful Jules Verne ATV mission has highlighted many new technologies and capabilities that can be utilised and adapted in the future for developing new spacecraft, which also make use of additional European know-how, such as atmospheric re-entry technologies. Such development could be of great strategic importance for Europes role in human spaceflight endeavours in low earth orbit and for future exploration missions, leading to an autonomous launch and return capabilities to and from orbit.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• atv
• esa
• space
• espace
• ariane
• arianespace
• iss
• reentry
• spaceflight
• capsule

[701shep]

wont happen in the next 30 years end of story

[realsupercopter]

@701shep "Rendez-vous dans 10 ans" ;-)

[nikobrown1990]

why cant they just invest more in the SABRE/ Skylon project, (due to me up and running by 2020) which (like the HOTOL project of the 1980s - British "space shuttle") would put cargo and astronauts into space with a single stage (SSTO) and land on a conventional runway instead of a tiny portion of the craft reaching LEO....?

[realsupercopter]

@nikobrown1990 : For what I know of the project, I don't think Skylon is supposed to transport any crew.

Anyway, of course it's a fantastic and exciting project, like all Space planes and Space gliders projects...

I wish the Hermes spacecraft was never stop as well, we would have had an "European shuttle" for decades !

[Qasimbajwaa]

one word, ORION

[realsupercopter]

@Qasimbajwaa - two words : "almost cancelled" ...

;-P

[Saukko31]

Fascinating. Europe needs its own spacecraft. Go ESA.

[bombarderoazul]

The problem with the european space agency is that not all the countries seem to agree on the same project, that's why Hermes was cancelled.

[nikobrown1990]

@pluto4847 we very nearly had our own space shuttle but it was cancelled - look up "HOTOL" on google or the continuation of it by Reaction Engines Limited

[swunt10]

@bombarderoazul noone needs Hermes. that's why it was cancelled.

[Qasimbajwaa]

@realsupercopter =(

[canuzzi]

@BigKwell : The Europeans have already a spacecraft: The ATV. The ATV is basically a modulized spacecraft design. And their goal was from the beginning an evolutionary approach towards a manned vessel later on. the next step will be the ARV - an unmanned return vessel.The modulized design alllows to use the whole engine section from the ATV and will reduce cost massively in the future.