The Automated Transfer Vehicle or ATV is an expendable, unmanned resupply spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA). ATVs are designed to supply the International Space Station (ISS) with propellant, water, air, payload and experiments. In addition, ATVs can reboost the station into a higher orbit.
The first ATV, Jules Verne, was launched in March 2008 and ESA has already contracted suppliers to produce four more to be flown until 2015. A total of seven ATVs could eventually be launched to the ISS, mission managers said. Approximately €1.35 billion EUR was spent by ESA on the ATV programme.
Design
The ATV is designed to complement the Progress spacecraft, having 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 shirt sleeve environment 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 (MPLM), which is already in service as a Shuttle-carried ‘space barge’ transporting equipment to and from the Station.
The ATV docking system consists of two videometers and two telegoniometers built by Sodern, a subsidiary of EADS. Additional monitoring data is supplied by a redundant Russian-made antenna built for the Ukranian-built Kurs, 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 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:
1,500 kilograms (3,300 lb) to 5,500 kilograms (12,000 lb) of dry cargo (re-supply goods, scientific payload, etc.),
Up to 840 kilograms (1,900 lb) of water,
Up to 100 kilograms (220 lb) of gas (nitrogen, oxygen, air), with up to two gases per flight,
Up to 4,700 kilograms (10,000 lb) of propellant for the re-boost maneuver and refueling the station. The ATV propellant used for re-boost (monomethylhydrazine fuel and N2O4 oxidizer) is of a different type from the payload Russian refueling propellant (UDMH fuel and N2O4 oxidizer).
Development
The prime contractor for the ATV is EADS Astrium 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 four initial units starts.
The first ATV arrived at the ESA spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on 31 July 2007 after a nearly two week journey from Rotterdam harbour and was launched on 9 March 2008. The Jules Verne was the first ATV to be launched. 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 40 million euro contract with one of the main subcontractors of EADS Astrium Space Transportation, the Italian company Thales Alenia Space, 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, Italy.
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 will be 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 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 high above the Pacific Ocean.
Jules Verne
The first flight of the ATV was delayed many times before its launch on 9 March 2008. It was named Jules Verne, in memory of the first science fiction writer of modern times, and 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-kilometre (190 mi) orbit atop an Ariane 5 from the equatorial ELA-3 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 ISS at 14:45 UTC on 3 April 2008.
ATV Control Centre
The ATV is monitored and controlled from the ATV Control Centre (ATV-CC) in the Toulouse Space Centre (CST) in Toulouse, 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 center has a direct communication line with the Columbus Control Center (Col-CC) in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. Col-CC provides ATV-CC with access to both the American TDRSS and the European Artemis communication networks in order to communicate with ATV and the space station. ATV-CC will coordinate its actions with Mission Control Center (MCC-H) in Houston, the FKA Mission Control Center (TsUP or MCC-M) in Moscow, Russia as well as the ATV launch site at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana.
