The European Space Agency (ESA) is building a new cargo vehicle to service the International Space Station. This vehicle known as the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is larger than the Russian Progress cargo ships currently used. In supplimenting the Progress vessels the ISS should greatly reduce the number of launches required to keep the ISS supplied onc the crew expands from its current 2 to 6 as planned.



The Automated Transfer Vehicle


Artist's impression of the Automated Transfer Vehicle approaching the International Space Station. In combination with ESA's new Ariane 5, the 20.5 t, 8.5 m-long Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) will enable Europe to transport cargo to the International Space Station. This new vehicle, scheduled for its initial test flight in September 2004, can carry 9 tonnes of scientific equipment, general supplies, water, oxygen and propellant. Up to 4 t can be propellant for ATV's own engines to reboost the Station at regular intervals as atmospheric drag reduces the orbit. Developed under Aerospatialess prime contractorship, an ATV will be launched on average every 15 months as a means of ESA contributing to the Station's operating costs. It can remain docked for up to 6 months, during which time it will be loaded with Station waste before being undocked and flown into Earth's atmosphere to burn up.

Credits: ESA - D.Ducros

The International Space Station (ISS) depends on regular deliveries of experimental equipment and spare parts as well as food, air and water for its permanent crew. From 2007 onward, Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) will be one of the indispensable ISS supply spaceships.


Every 12 months or so, the ATV will haul 7.5 tonnes of cargo from its Kourou launch site in French Guiana to the Station 400 km above the Earth. An on board high precision navigation system will guide the ATV on a rendezvous trajectory towards ISS, where it will automatically dock with the Station's Russian service module. The ATV will remain there as a pressurized and integral part of the Station for up to six months until its final mission: a fiery one-way trip into the Earth's atmosphere to dispose of up to 6.5 tonnes of Station waste.

New generation spaceship


Artist's impression of the Automated Transfer Vehicle approaching the International Space Station. In combination with ESA's new Ariane 5, the 20.5 t, 8.5 m-long Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) will enable Europe to transport cargo to the International Space Station.
This new vehicle, scheduled for its initial test flight in September 2004, can carry 9 tonnes of scientific equipment, general supplies, water, oxygen and propellant. Up to 4 t can be propellant for ATV's own engines to reboost the Station at regular intervals as atmospheric drag reduces the orbit.

Developed under Aerospatialess prime contractorship, an ATV will be launched on average every 15 months as a means of ESA contributing to the Station's operating costs. It can remain docked for up to 6 months, during which time it will be loaded with Station waste before being undocked and flown into Earth's atmosphere to burn up.

Credits: ESA-D.Ducros

To succeed in docking safely with a huge manned station, the 20-tonne ATV, developed by the European Space Agency, has to be a highly sophisticated, new generation spacecraft. The exterior is an eggshell-coloured cylinder, 10.3 metres long and 4.5 metres in diameter. The details of the ATV’s structure are covered with an insulating foil layer on top of anti-meteorite panels. The X-shaped extended solar arrays, characteristic of the ATV, look like metallic blue wings. Inside, the ATV consists of two modules, the propulsion spacecraft and the integrated cargo carrier which docks with the ISS.

Although no one will ever be launched in an ATV, astronauts, dressed in regular clothing, will be able to access its contents during its joint orbital flight with ISS. In fact, the ATV pressurised 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, which is equipped with its own propulsion and navigation systems, is a multi-functional spaceship, which combines both the full automatic capabilities of an unmanned vehicle, and the human spacecraft safety requirements. Its mission in space will resemble the combination of a tugboat and a river barge.

The 48 m³-pressurized section has room for up to eight standard racks which are loaded with modular storage cargo elements. The integrated cargo carrier also holds several tanks, containing up to 840 kg of drinking water, 860 kg of refuelling propellant for the Station’s own propulsion system and 100 kg of air (oxygen and nitrogen). The ‘nose’ of the cargo section contains the Russian-made docking equipment and various kinds of rendezvous sensors.

The ATV's spacecraft module navigates with four main engines (490 Newton) plus 28 smaller thrusters (220 N) for attitude control. After docking, the ATV can perform ISS attitude control, debris avoidance manoeuvres and boost the Station's orbit to overcome the effects of atmospheric drag. In order to perform this last manoeuvre the ATV uses up to 4.7 tonnes of propellant.

Mission scenario


Artist's impression of the Automated Transfer Vehicle approaching the International Space Station. In combination with ESA's new Ariane 5, the 20.5 t, 8.5 m-long Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) will enable Europe to transport cargo to the International Space Station. This new vehicle, scheduled for its initial test flight in October 2002, can carry 9 tonnes of scientific equipment, general supplies, water, oxygen and propellant. Up to 4 t can be propellant for ATV's own engines to reboost the Station at regular intervals as atmospheric drag reduces the orbit. Developed under Aerospatialess prime contractorship, an ATV will be launched on average every 15 months as a means of ESA contributing to the Station's operating costs. It can remain docked for up to 6 months, during which time it will be loaded with Station waste before being undocked and flown into Earth's atmosphere to burn up.
The ATV becomes an extension of the station. The 45 m³ pressurized module of the ATV delivers up to 7,2 tonnes of equipment, fuel, food, water and air for the crew.

Credits: ESA-D.Ducros

A typical ATV mission will begin when the craft is launched into a 300-km orbit atop an Ariane-5 from the French Guiana equatorial launch site. Under the responsibility of the European control centre in Toulouse (France), the ATV separates from Ariane and navigation systems are activated. Thrusters are fired to boost the ATV into the transfer orbit to the ISS.

After three days of orbit adjustments, the ATV will come in sight of the ISS and will start relative navigation from about 30 km behind and 5 km below the Station. The cargo ship's computers begin final approach manoeuvres over the next two orbits, closing with ISS at walking pace.

The actual docking will be fully automatic. If there are any last-minute problems, either the ATV's computers or the Station's crew can trigger a pre-programmed sequence of anti-collision manoeuvres, which is fully independent of the main navigation system. This back-up system adds a full level of safety, which could be compared to an airbag in a car.

With the ATV securely docked, the Station's crew can enter the cargo section and remove the payload: maintenance supplies, science hardware, and parcels of fresh food, mail and family tapes or CD-ROMs. Meanwhile, the ATV's liquid tanks will be connected to the Station's own plumbing and discharge their contents. The Station crew will manually release air components directly into the ISS’s atmosphere. For up to six months, the ATV, mostly in dormant mode, will remain attached to the ISS with the hatch remaining open. The crew will steadily fill the cargo section with the Station's waste. At intervals of 10 to 45 days, the ATV’s thrusters will be used to boost the Station's altitude.

Once its re-supply mission is accomplished, the ATV, filled with waste, will be closed by the crew and automatically separated. Its thrusters will use their remaining fuel to de-orbit the spacecraft, not at the shallow angle used for the relatively gentle re-entry of manned vehicles, but on a steep flight path to perform a controlled destructive re-entry high above the Pacific Ocean.

From its first operational flight in 2007, Europe's most challenging spaceship will play a vital role in Station servicing. It is also a way for Europe to pay its share in ISS running costs by spending money in the European industry rather than by cash transfers to its international partners. Depending on the operational lifetime of the Space Station, ESA will build at least 7 ATVs. Thirty companies from ten European countries, as well as eight other companies from Russia and the United States share the work, with EADS Launch Vehicles (France) as the Prime Contractor.

Source: ESA - ATV

Artist's impression of the Automated Transfer Vehicle approaching the International Space Station. In combination with ESA's new Ariane 5, the 20.5 t, 8.5 m-long Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) will enable Europe to transport cargo to the International Space Station.
This new vehicle, scheduled for its initial test flight in September 2004, can carry 9 tonnes of scientific equipment, general supplies, water, oxygen and propellant. Up to 4 t can be propellant for ATV's own engines to reboost the Station at regular intervals as atmospheric drag reduces the orbit.

Developed under Aerospatialess prime contractorship, an ATV will be launched on average every 15 months as a means of ESA contributing to the Station's operating costs. It can remain docked for up to 6 months, during which time it will be loaded with Station waste before being undocked and flown into Earth's atmosphere to burn up.

Credits: ESA-D.Ducros

19 June 2006
If Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) encounters difficulties during rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS), some highly sophisticated software will be on-hand to take over operations and avoid a potentially dangerous situation.

The ATV is a multi-functional spaceship that makes great use of flight software in order to combine both the full automatic capabilities of an unmanned vehicle, and the human spacecraft safety requirements. During its automated rendezvous with the manned Space Station, the software responsible for the ultimate safety of the crew is critical and cannot accept a failure probability at the same rate as non-critical software. For that purpose, the most stringent requirements, gathered under the label 'Category A', are imposed on the design and development of such software to make it reach an exceptional level of robustness in order to avoid any catastrophic situation or loss of human life.

The ATV, even in the case of malfunction, does not rely on human intervention to take over manual control of the vehicle to ensure mission success and ISS safety. The spaceship, even after two possible failures on board, must still be safe for the ISS crew and for the Space Station itself. The main risk resides in the critical phase of rendezvous and docking. Because of its 20.7-tonne mass, the ATV must, by all possible means, avoid a collision with the Station during the docking and de-docking operations. If control is lost at this critical phase of the mission, it could result in severe damage to the ISS.


The ATV's Monitoring and Safing Unit (MSU) (outlined in red) and the three electronic boxes (outlined in yellow) for the Fault Tolerant Computer (FTC) inside Jules Verne ATV avionics bay.
The triple FTC, which is the main computer, plays the role of a pilot that navigates the ATV. The Monitoring and Safing Unit (MSU) can be compared to a pilot responsible for safety, hidden inside the automated spaceship responsible for the mission.

Credits: ESA

For this purpose, the ATV relies on several automatic layers (1) of software and hardware redundancies, which provide a high level of autonomy to the spaceship. This autonomy allows the ATV to fulfil the entire mission on its own – including recovering from two independent failures without crew input.
In the classification used by ESA’s Directorate of Human Spaceflight, Microgravity and Exploration (D/HME), there are four categories of software from ‘A’ to ‘D’. All the requirements are specific to manned flights. The ‘D’ category is applied to all the ground software that has no direct impact on the mission objectives. At the other end of the scale, the ‘A Category’ software is the most critical since it is the last resort available to save the crew and the space habitat in case of major failure of the main system. Other ISS related human spaceflight projects already use this software classification scheme; however ‘Category A’ software has never been applied before.


ATV avionics bay

Credits: ESA

“NASA has monitored the MSU progress by being involved in many reviews and has always been impressed by the professionalism exhibited by ESA during the development of this critical component”, said Jerry Clubb, NASA manager of the International Partner Avionics Integration for the ISS at Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas, in the United States.

Prime and backup pilots

On board the ATV, the Fault Tolerant Computer (FTC), which is the main computer, and its Flight Application Software (FAS), plays the role of a pilot that navigates the ATV mission. The FTC actually comprises three identical computers that monitor each other during the flight; each hosts identical software that manages the main vehicle functions -- in nominal mode – according to predefined on board mission plans.

In the event the FTC fails during the approach phase, or the ATV manoeuvres endanger the ISS, a dedicated backup computer, the Monitoring and Safing Unit, or MSU, enters into play. This is the only computer unit on board that executes the ‘Category A’ software. Already during nominal approach to the ISS, the MSU, a completely independent computer, constantly monitors the position of the ATV and the performance of the main computer (FTC) by comparing it to a pre-programmed set of data.

Upon detection of a critical failure or an unsafe situation, the MSU isolates the ATV’s nominal system and commands a Collision Avoidance Manoeuvre (CAM). This brings the ATV on a safe trajectory within the monitoring corridor towards the ISS. Once the Collision Avoidance Manoeuvre is completed, the MSU points the vehicle towards the Sun, thus ensuring sufficient power from the solar panels during the ‘survival’ mode that the vehicle enters. The MSU works with its own hardware chains and avionics lanes built independently, in order to keep the ATV functioning in case of main hardware failure.

The MSU can also be activated to execute a Collision Avoidance Manoeuvre from within the ATV Control Centre (ATV-CC) in Toulouse, France, or by the ISS crew in orbit.


A master-slave relationship

"The MSU and its associated systems – hardware and software - are so segregated from the main ATV systems, that we can compare it to a satellite inside a satellite - like a pilot responsible for safety, hidden inside the automated spaceship responsible for the mission", says ESA astronaut Jean-François Clervoy, the senior advisor to the ATV programme. "This independent mode relies on separate computers, separate software, separate batteries, separate trajectory monitoring sensors and separate thrusters. The only item shared with the ATV’s main system is propellant."

The MSU itself features two identical computers, the ‘master’ and the ‘slave’. The slave monitors the health status of the master, ready to take over in case the latter should fail. The slave works in fact like a backup. Once the lead computer activates a Collision Avoidance Manoeuvre, the other computer – the slave – inhibits itself.


The first ATV flight model, , is currently undergoing testing at ESTEC in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Here Jules Verne is being moved into the Maxwell electromagnetic radiation chamber.

Credits: ESA

MSU : A small and robust last resort

Since the MSU is the last barrier to prevent catastrophic consequences, its software has been subject to ESA's most stringent software development rules and quality assurance measures. In addition to the analyses, code inspections and tests performed by the developer – EADS SPACE Transportation in Les Mureaux, France – a separate contractor – the Danish firm ROVSING A/S – has been appointed to perform ‘independent software validation and verification’ or ISVV for short.

The MSU software has been developed with the objective of extreme robustness. To achieve this objective, reduced complexity, 100% determinism, and maximum capability to be tested, were directly built in its design.

“In accordance with the Category A software requirements, the MSU software has been 100% tested on target, which means on a computer architecture similar to the flight model. The test has also reproduced all possible conditions the software may have to cope with, including running stress and long duration tests,” says Eric Zekri, ESA ATV programme software engineer, in charge of MSU development.

The failure tolerance requirements of ATV, which add to the complexity of the ATV spaceship, mean a large amount of software: there are about one million lines of code in the various computers on the vehicle, with about half that total in the FTC alone. The MSU software, on the contrary, has been kept extremely compact and implements navigation, monitoring, and the Collision Avoidance Manoeuvre, with just 15 000 lines of code. “This software is small on purpose; the smaller it is, the better you can test it and such a size is needed for our ambitious verification approach”, says Klaus Ludwig, ESA software manager on the ATV programme.


In combination with ESA's new Ariane 5, 8.5 m-long Automated Transfer Vehicle (Verne) will enable Europe to transport cargo to the International Space Station. The 45 m³ pressurized module of the ATV delivers up to 7,2 tonnes of equipment, fuel, food, water and air for the crew.

Credits: ESA

Software under scrutiny

To obtain the best and most reliable software quality, special design and implementation rules had to be developed and have been applied in the development of code and algorithms for the software. (2)

Unlike any other space programs, the entire MSU software – line by line – has been through a meticulous numerical analysis to guarantee its ‘computational stability’, in order to avoid any error.

In terms of validation and verification tests, a very rigorous scheme has been put into place to validate the MSU software.

The independent software validation and verification (ISVV) team has been involved as an independent player from the very beginning of the software development, and has actively participated in all major software reviews. In addition, the ISVV team has performed independent unit and integration level testing at a dedicated ISVV test facility.

Finally, the so-called ‘stress test’ has been performed in parallel to the developer’s qualification tests. Contrary to the qualification test objectives, which prove the correctness and completeness of the software, the only goal of a ‘stress test’ is to break the software. “These stress tests have been conducted on carefully selected parts of the software, which have been identified during code inspections as potentially critical. And all stress test results have confirmed the robustness of the MSU software”, says Klaus Ludwig.


A fruitful collaboration

The MSU software has been designed and developed within a tight collaboration between the ESA and EADS-ST technical teams, gathered in the so-called ‘MSU team’ which consists of a dozen flight control and software specialists. From the early development stages, ROVSING A/S has been involved in the development and test campaign of the MSU software, providing feedback on the results of their own independent assessment to the MSU team.

This successful collaboration started in 2001, and the qualification of the ‘Category A’ software was achieved in March 2006. “This development is a premiere in Europe, and is, above all, the result of the successful day-to-day collaboration”, underlines Eric Zekri.

For the ESA ATV team and EADS SPACE Transportation, being collocated on the same site of Les Mureaux (50 km west of Paris) has been a great help for this software development.

“The working relationship we had with our ESA partner is much more than contractual. A real process of emulation and mutual confidence has been built up between us for five years”, said David Berthelier, the MSU project manager at EADS SPACE Transportation in Les Mureaux, “Within our EADS integrated team, everyone was proud and motivated to develop a whole software from top to bottom with this exceptional level of criticality. This Category A software is a first in Europe”.

Important lessons could be learned from this unique experience, in terms of design, and testing, but also in terms of interaction between the teams and the involvement of the ISVV team.

“If the Jules Verne mission is nominal and successful as we expect it to be, this state of the art MSU software will never be used for active control of the ATV. The MSU will just be limited to its monitoring role”, says Klaus Ludwig.


Footnotes:

(1) The ATV relies on a primary layer of automated Failure Detection, Isolation, and Recovery (FDIR) giving the spaceship the necessary level of autonomy to fulfil the entire mission on its own, up to docking with the ISS. In case a contingency situation on board the ATV would be such that the primary FDIR is defeated, the MSU comes into play as the last safety barrier, taking over the nominal system, and bringing the ATV on a safe trajectory in relation to the ISS.

(2) For example, the software has been modelled with a special mathematical tool – called SCADE – which allows to visualize the internal logics of the software and to verify it. Furthermore, another step has been taken to guarantee an additional robustness. "The MSU software is built around a data flow driven design. This means that the operations inside the software are triggered by the availability of the data (such as sensor input) and sequenced in order to have the data available when needed (in case of a sensor input) and to have meet the deadlines to produce an effect (such as starting a manoeuvre)," explains Erik Zekri. "Furthermore, we took care that all internal software components are interacting within a unique context or ‘state’, over each time slice of 100 milliseconds. The result is a cyclic and 100% deterministic software, which greatly simplifies the verification process. We can compare it to a working group of people speaking the same language, sharing the same environment, the same information needed and producing reliable and recurrent conclusions."

Source: ESA - News

Jules Verne is moved into the acoustic test facility, LEAF

Credits: ESA - Anneke Le Floc'h

19 June 2006
Acoustic testing of Jules Verne, the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), has successfully been completed at ESA's test facilities in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.

The 11-tonne test configuration of the ATV Flight Model (the actual flight launch mass is 20.5 tonnes) was transferred to the Large European Acoustic Facility (LEAF) with the help of an air cushion transfer pad.
The ATV, an unmanned vehicle that will deliver supplies to the International Space Station (ISS), will be put into orbit by the European Ariane-5 launcher. Acoustic testing is vital to ensure the ATV can withstand the vibrations caused by the extreme noise levels generated during launch.

Acoustic vibrations are been used to simulate the stress the ATV will encounter during the first three minutes of launch - due to aero dynamical forces - on top of the powerful European Ariane-5 launcher.


Sensors attatched to ATV monitored hardware during test runs

Credits: ESA - Anneke Le Floc'h

The whole structure of the ATV, which is the size of a double-decker London bus, will have to withstand an overall sound pressure level of 144 dB with main frequencies between 25Hz and 5kHz. The same amount of acoustic vibrations would be lethal for the human body.

Over several days different test runs were conducted in the special enclosed facility, LEAF. Dozens of sensors placed in different areas of the ATV have measured and checked its hardware behaviour. Two-dozen technicians and engineers from Prime Contractor EADS Launch Vehicles, EADS Space Transportation, Alcatel Alenia Space (former Alenia Spazio), Dutch Space (acquired by EADS Space), European Test Services (ETS) and ESA coordinated the test runs.

Source: ESA - News

At Europe’s largest ship hull test facility, 100 km west of Paris, ESA ATV engineers with Astrium ST assistance, here in front of their PC screens, are running numerous simulations of the ATV rendezvous scheduled next year with the ISS. All aspects of the spacecraft for the orbital rendezvous are either represented for real – aft end of the ISS (in the background), sensors, software, trajectories – or simulated such as Jules Verne's inertia, thruster firings.

Credits: ESA

27 September 2006
A milestone in the development of the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) was passed earlier this summer at Europe’s largest ship hull test facility, west of Paris. It involved tests conducted on the critical final phase of the automated rendezvous and docking system of ATV by using state-of-the-art sensors and flight control software.

"For the first time, to replicate the Jules Verne ATV rendezvous, ATV flight sensors were used successfully in life-size rendezvous conditions, feeding measurements into the flight control computer. At the same time, a simulator calculates the dynamic motion corresponding to how the vehicle behaves in space. A third system replicates physically this computation into a relative motion between the sensors, carried by an industrial robot, and their targets carried by a mobile platform. The integration of all these systems into a closed-loop test, as we call it, worked exceptionally well from start of the rendezvous – at some 250 metres – all the way to docking," said ESA ATV engineer Stein Strandmoe, who supervised this series of rendezvous test campaigns.


On the 120-tonne mobile platform (to the right), a set of passive rendezvous targets (retroreflectors), identical to the ones installed on the ISS, are facing the sensors mounted on an articulated industrial robotic arm (left). The relative motion achieved between the two is identical to the one expected during next years rendezvous between Jules Verne and ISS.

Credits: ESA

For the final rendezvous manoeuvres of the Jules Verne mission, scheduled for the middle of next year, the ATV will use its videometer camera-like sensors, under the supervision of an independent system, based on a laser scanning device. Safety is thus ensured with a centimetre precision while the spacecraft and the ISS are circling the Earth at 28 000 km/h. These built-in automatic capabilities of the ATV must be compatible with the demanding specifications of human spaceflight safety, required by the permanently crewed ISS.

To realistically check the flight hardware videometer capabilities – in acquisition and targeting – the tests are conducted in a research facility of the French defence agency 'Délégation Générale pour l'Armement' (DGA), located in Normandy.

Inside a 600-metre long building, a 120-tonne mobile platform controlled with millimetre precision, enables the continuous tri-dimensional approach between the two space vehicles, from a range of several hundred metres to within docking contact conditions. On the platform, a set of passive rendezvous targets (retroreflectors), identical to the ones installed on ISS, face the sensors mounted on an articulated industrial robotic arm. This platform replicates the closing motion between ATV and ISS, and the robot replicates the relative rotation and lateral motion between the two vehicles. The relative motion achieved is identical to the one expected during next year's rendezvous between Jules Verne and ISS.



During the summer, a NASA team of engineers in charge of the rendezvous aspects of the ISS have been at Val de Reuil facility in Normandy, France, to witness (with special laser-protective goggles) the full rendezvous simulations of the ATV Jules Verne.

Credits: ESA

During these angular movements executed by the seven-metre high robotic arm, the engineers were able to check the videometer tracking reliability towards the ISS retroreflectors. The function of the videometer is to analyse images of its emitted laser beam automatically reflected by passive retroreflectors installed next to the Station's Russian docking port where ATV will be attached. It was also possible to check that the videometer data are correctly provided to the ATV control system in order to adjust its trajectory accordingly.

“When the ATV is targeting and getting closer to the ISS, the Station has its own oscillations due to the firing of ISS attitude control jets. So the ATV must adjust constantly like two dancing partners who remain constantly in phase in their movements”, said ESA astronaut Jean-François Clervoy, senior advisor to the ATV programme.

To make this rendezvous testing as realistic as possible, a 4.15 metre diameter mock-up of the aft end of the ISS Service Module is placed on the facility's moving platform. It includes the docking port, the Russian-made thermal blankets and the retro-reflective targets. The facility also can simulate the Sun using a 24kW electrical spot-light during the simulations.



In late August, ESA and EADS-Astrium managers visited the Val de Reuil ship hull test facility to observe the successful tests of ATV rendezvous replicating the 2007 Jules Verne mission.

From left to right: Nicolas Chamussy, Astrium-ST ATV Programme manager, Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of ESA, John Ellwood, ESA’s ATV Project manager, Michael Menking, V.P. Orbital and Reusable Systems EADS-ST, Daniel Sacotte, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight and ESA astronaut Jean-François Clervoy, senior advisor to the ATV programme.

Credits: ESA

For the first time, this rendezvous test campaign has made different systems work successfully together: on the one hand, the Jules Verne ATV flight software, the flight sensors and the rendezvous trajectories and on the other hand, the sophisticated motion simulation hardware and software developed by ESA with Astrium ST assistance in Val de Reuil.

“These tests are very important because it is the first time ever that we can really test the whole system for the rendezvous and docking. This is the only facility in the world which allows us to simulate the whole rendezvous, from the time Jules Verne starts coming in – using the optical sensors – right through to docking. And this system works in complete closed-loop conditions where all aspects of the spacecraft are either represented for real – software, sensors, trajectories – or simulated such as Jules Verne inertia, thrusters firing etc...", said John Ellwood, ESA’s ATV Project Manager.

Jules Verne, the first flight model of a series of ATVs foreseen to service the International Space Station (ISS), is currently at the ESA facility in the Netherlands is undergoing final integration.

Source: ESA - ATV

Jules Verne, the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), the most complex spacecraft
ever developed in Europe, has successfully completed this week its most exhaustive test
campaign at ESA’s test facilities at ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands. Jules Verne is
due to make its inaugural flight atop an Ariane 5 in summer 2007 to re-supply the
International Space Station.

Credits: ESA - A. Le Floc'h

14 December 2006
For 21 days in a row, Jules Verne, the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), has not only survived the most stringent conditions of the space environment, but it has successfully tested on the ground its flight software and hardware under the toughest simulated conditions of space vacuum, freezing temperatures and burning sun radiation.

Jules Verne ATV, the most complex spacecraft ever developed in Europe, is due to make its inaugural flight atop an Ariane 5 in summer 2007 to re-supply the International Space Station. It has just completed its most exhaustive test campaign at ESA’s test facilities at ESTEC, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

"Started on 22 November, the test campaign, with different cycles of cold and hot phases, has been performed according to schedule and the 'behaviour' of this complex spaceship has been generally in line with the expected one when reacting to the cold and hot environment", said Bachisio Dore, the ESA ATV manager of Assembly Integration & Verification (AIV). "The successful completion of this test campaign represents a major milestone for the ATV Programme."


Thermal challenge


Astrium and subcontractor engineers and Bachisio Dore, the ESA ATV manager of
Assembly Integration & Verification (in the middle) have been monitoring the spacecraft
round the clock, seven days a week. Inside the Large Space Simulator (LSS), Jules Verne,
the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), was put under the toughest simulated conditions
of space vacuum, freezing temperatures and burning Sun radiation.

Credits: ESA

The most challenging aspect of the test has been for Jules Verne ATV to keep its temperatures within strict limits compatible with all the thousands parts of hardware which make up its sophisticated subsystems. Specific software and new technology enable ATV to balance the temperatures on the spaceship and allow it to fly smoothly in the freezing darkness, the burning sunshine radiation and in the vacuum of the orbital environment.

"It is like putting your computer laptop in the freezer, then exposing it to the Sun in the summer heat and back again to the freezer while you are continually using it", explained one of the 35 Astrium and subcontractor engineers who are monitoring the spacecraft round the clock, seven days a week.

Jules Verne is no laptop – it is a 20-tonne spacecraft, the size of a double-decker bus, with dozens of powerful computers and a large amount of electronics. Its software of one million lines of code makes it the largest and most elaborate ever developed in Europe.

The 625 built-in thermal sensors and another 250 extra sensors, especially added inside and around Jules Verne for the test, have been carefully monitoring that the temperatures remain within their acceptable limits around the clock.

At the same time, inside the huge 2 300 m³ Large Space Simulator (LSS) chamber, in-orbit environmental conditions and thermal cycles have been reproduced. A typical vacuum level of one-millionth of a millibar was achieved, the outside chamber temperature was lowered to minus 300°C or minus 800°C according to the test cycle; and for short periods, the Sun simulator was activated, providing a horizontal solar beam of 6-metre diameter, to radiate a powerful flux of 1400 Watts per square metre on the dazzling white layer protecting Jules Verne.


State-of-the-art heat pipes


Under the most stringent conditions of simulated space environment, ATV engineers
have successfully ordered the extension and the retraction of the probe (at the top) of
the docking system of the spaceship. For 21 days in a row, inside the huge 2300 m³
Large Space Simulator (LSS), the 20-tonne Jules Verne ATV spacecraft has survived
perfectly the toughest simulated conditions of space vacuum, freezing temperatures
and burning sun radiation.

Credits: ESA

The ATV consists of two main modules with their own temperature requirements. The pressurized Integrated Cargo Carrier, with its 48m³ compartment dedicated to carry the entire re-supply cargo to the Station (with a maximum mass of 7 667 kg). This module, which docks to the ISS, must remain between 200°C and 300°C between launch and docking, and during the attached phase with the ISS, especially when refuelling propellant is transferred to the Station.

The non-pressurized avionics/propulsion module, which includes rocket engines, electrical power, electronics, computers, communications and the avionics, has to remain between 0°C and 40°C.

The avionics bay, which is the brain of the ATV, produces its own heat from the large numbers of electronic equipment, and at the same time manages a very sophisticated system to control overheating. "Thanks to 40 state-of-the-art variable conductance heat pipes located in the avionics bay, the ATV is able to carry away the heat and release the energy directly into space or, otherwise, to warm up other parts in a very economic fashion. This new technology means we can get rid of 50% more energy for the whole spaceship, and still maintain the right internal temperature environment", explains Patrick Oger, an Astrium thermal engineer.

Another objective of the test was to monitor the outgassing of the ATV, caused by some materials of the spaceship which, under vacuum conditions, release some internal gases that are usually trapped inside them. ATV gas samples were collected during the tests in the vacuum chamber and will be later analyzed. The aerospace engineers want to be sure that ATV gases do not contaminate the critical mechanisms of the spacecraft, like those that rotate the solar panels towards the Sun. Their rotation at different temperatures performed properly, even though the four solar panels were not mounted on the ATV for the test.


One thousand test sequences


"The successful completion of this 3-week test campaign represents a major
milestone for the ATV Programme", said Bachisio Dore, the ESA ATV manager of
Assembly Integration & Verification (on the right). With the assistance of Pierre Casiez,
Astrium engineer, they are monitoring the thermal performances of the Jules Verne
spacecraft reacting to orbital-like cycles of hot and cold environment.

Credits: ESA

The main objective of the test was to verify that under the thermal vacuum environment all the hardware items are working together properly. To achieve this goal for a complex spacecraft such ATV, the development, tuning and validation by Astrium engineers of about one thousand test procedures and automated test sequences were required.

For example, during the test, ATV engineers also activated some of the moving parts of the spaceship. As soon as the order was given to extend or retract the probe of the docking system, they were able to see it moving slowly, while looking through the small LSS windows near the top of the spaceship.

In the final days of testing, several simulated firings of the 32 engine thrusters were performed with helium gas, in order to verify the proper interaction between the propulsion and avionics subsystems. Additionally all the hardware needed by ATV to perform emergency manoeuvres to avoid collision with the ISS was tested during the thermal tests by simulating the performance of four such manoeuvres.

"Thanks to these extensive tests, it has been possible to validate the whole ATV, that is to say all the hardware while it was reacting to the harsh orbital conditions. At the same time we could check the complete performance of the hardware and software needed for power and thermal control under close-to-space conditions", says Marc Chevalier, the Astrium ATV manager of the Assembly Integration Test (AIT). "This successful test will also show us some minor improvements in the software procedures which it would be good to implement."

In the coming weeks, about 50 gigabytes of test data stored during the 270 hours of functional testing performed during the thermal test, which have been archived, will be carefully analyzed to be sure that any minor anomalies or bugs are fully understood.

Source: ESA - ATV

Artist's impression showing the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) docked with the Russian Zvezda module.

Credits: ESA - D.Ducrosh

22 March 2007
Jules Verne, the first of five Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATV), stands on the brink of flight. Its hardware is 100 percent assembled and ready to fly. The inaugural mission, set for the second half of 2007, will follow an extensive three-year test campaign.

Prime contractor and ESA teams are working overtime to finish the testing of the most complex spaceship ever developed in Europe. During the coming crucial months, this state-of-the-art programme faces three key concurrent objectives: to fully prepare for Flight Operations, to fine-tune the interfaces with the International Space Station and the Station partners, and to prepare Ariane 5 for launching its largest payload to date.

For the past months, the main challenge of ATV qualification testing has been to run parallel test campaigns involving a variety of interfaces with different partners. The primary objective of this complex and time-consuming strategy is to ensure that ATV's hardware and software can handle all possible nominal and off-nominal scenarios that Jules Verne might face during its flight.

10 November 2006. A 120-tonne mobile platform (left), mounted with a set of passive rendezvous targets (retroreflectors) identical to the ones installed on the ISS, are facing the sensors mounted on an articulated industrial robotic arm (right). The relative motion achieved between the two is identical to the one expected during next years rendezvous between the first Automated Transfer Vehicle 'Jules Verne' and the International Space Station (ISS).

Credits: ESA - S. CORVAJA

The Jules Verne rendezvous technique was tested successfully in France
For instance, at the RSC-Energia plant outside Moscow - the manufacturing site for the ATV docking mechanism, the refuelling system and the associated electronics - major computer simulations have been underway from December through to March at the GDC (Ground Debugging Complex). There, a powerful simulator purposely introduces several failure scenarios and creates artificially degraded situations that the ATV architecture must cope with, while respecting the tough requirements of human spaceflight.

The objective is to test the final version of the software used, firstly to interface between the ATV and the Russian module when they initiate rendezvous and docking, as well as the software used later after docking to allow the Russian module to take control the ATV propulsion system for re-boost and attitude control of the 220-tonne ISS. Tests have included actual communications hardware and GPS simulators.

This test campaign, which is now reaching a successful conclusion, has suffered significant delays due to unexpected problems during the validation of the Russian segment GPS, which is needed by the ATV's relative navigation system. Corrective actions, including a software upgrade, have now finally resulted in a successful test.

Under the most stringent conditions of simulated space environment, ATV engineers have successfully ordered the extension and the retraction of the probe (at the top) of the docking system of the spaceship. For 21 days in a row, inside the huge 2300 m3 Large Space Simulator (LSS), the 20-tonne Jules Verne ATV spacecraft has survived perfectly the toughest simulated conditions of space vacuum, freezing temperatures and burning sun radiation.

Credits: ESA

At the same Russian plant, another two-month campaign, set for this spring, will test real interfaces with the massive replica of the 12.6 m long Russian Module at the Control and Testing Station (KIS) facility. Thanks to actual physical interfaces, it is possible to test the Russian docking and refuelling system with real fluids and pressurized tanks. Jules Verne, like the Russian Progress vehicle, has the capability to refuel the Station with 860 kg of propellant and evacuate 840 kg of liquid waste.

Meanwhile, in at ESA's test centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, the Jules Verne spaceship underwent two major environment tests during 2006. The first one was the acoustic test, to verify the capability of the spacecraft to withstand the noise loads experienced during launch. This test was successfully completed in July.

Next came a thermal vacuum test to verify that Jules Verne, in active status, is able to sustain the harsh space conditions with extreme temperatures in a vacuum. Despite the readiness of the spacecraft itself, this test had to be postponed due to the underestimated time needed to define precisely the test procedures – which must be perfect – when the flight hardware is involved. Eventually one week before Christmas last year, Jules Verne went through this test successfully.

Also in autumn 2006, thanks to Europe’s largest ship hull test facility, west of Paris, the Jules Verne rendezvous technique was tested successfully. For the first time the system worked in complete 'closed-loop' conditions where all aspects of the spacecraft were either represented for real – computers, software, sensors, trajectories – or simulated such as Jules Verne's inertia, thruster firing etc..

Getting ready

Fermat Building of the Toulouse Space Centre will house the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) Control Centre. The French space agency, CNES, will take responsibility for the development of the Control Centre, and prepare, coordinate and support all ATV operations on behalf of ESA.

Credits: CNES

Several mission scenarios will require complex interactions and shared responsibilities between the ATV Control Centre (ATV-CC) in Toulouse, France, and Russian and American Mission Control Centres in Moscow and Houston. For the first time in space history, three space control centres around the globe must work together. For these Joint Activities related to the ATV in orbit, specific high-level procedures, called Multi-Element Procedures, have been developed, allocating the tasks to be performed sequentially to the centres involved. A dozen simulations involving the three centres remain ongoing to fine-tune the procedures for nominal and off-nominal scenarios that Jules Verne could face.

The ISS Expedition 16 crew, Peggy Whitson and Yuri Malenchenko, during ATV training at the European Astronaut Centre, in Cologne, Germany. (March 2007)

Credits: ESA/DLR

At the same time, the ISS Expedition 16 crew, Yuri Malenchenko and Peggy Whitson, has started the ATV training at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. "Their task during rendezvous will be similar to that of an aircraft crew monitoring an auto-land involving 14 different parameters, with no back-up manual control except the possibility to command an automatic go-around maneuver", said ESA astronaut Jean-François Clervoy, the senior advisor to the ATV programme.

Now that all the numerous tests and campaign challenges are nearing completion, Jules Verne should be ready for shipment to the launch site in summer 2007. The transportation of ATV and its 400 tonnes of ground support equipment from ESA's test centre in the Netherlands to Kourou, French Guiana, will take two weeks by sea on board the Ariane 5 transportation ship, Toucan.

"It is very encouraging to see that most of the problems we have encountered in the last years are now solved and although we still have plenty of work to do, we can foresee that we will be ready to ship Jules Verne to French Guiana in the next few months ready for the launch”, said John Ellwood ESA’s ATV Project Manager.

Since the ATV is the heaviest and most complex spacecraft project ever developed in Europe, and because of its demanding requirements of human spacecraft safety, the launch campaign at the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in French Guiana will extend almost four months before lift-off.

Final launch date

Europe's cargo spaceship, the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), compares in size to a double-decker London bus.

Credits: ESA-D.Ducros

Meanwhile in Europe, from April to mid-summer, an extensive review will be conducted with NASA and the Russians to be sure that Jules Verne, its facilities and tri-lateral ATV procedures are ready to support Jules Verne ATV inaugural mission.

Qualification of the ATV Control Centre is almost finalized, a large part of the system validation test programme has been completed and the normal operations qualification programme has started and is on schedule for launch readiness by end-July this year.

Besides the readiness of Jules Verne and its control centre, numerous external constraints considerably limit the Jules Verne docking date opportunities which in turn reduce the launch date opportunities.

One major natural constraint is given by the Sun angle with respect to the ATV-ISS line of sight during the final approach: this angle must be low enough to maintain proper power supply to ISS and high enough to avoid dazzling the rendezvous sensors. This constraint opens two launch windows, one in September and another in November.

Other major constraints are driven by the traffic of other space vehicles to and from the Space Station and the availability of the docking port usually taken by a Russian re-supply ship Progress.

Artist's impression showing the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) during docking with the International Space Station (ISS).

Credits: ESA - D.Ducros[/size]

Another unfortunate weather event recently reshuffled the already intricate Jules Verne launch date equation. The recent hail damage incurred by the Space Shuttle's External Tank on the launch pad in Florida is currently being assessed and NASA has already announced that it will impact the Shuttle flight manifest of this autumn by a few weeks.

Taking into account on the one hand the delays encountered recently by the test teams in Russia and in Europe, due to unexpected but now resolved problems, and on the other hand the addition of external constraints on the possible launch dates, it is now understood that the first possible Jules Verne launch opportunities are not earlier than September with a possibility of schedule slip to November depending on the resolution of the Shuttle manifest re-planning and the priority given to ATV to re-supply the Station with up to 6 tonnes of cargo.

ESA management is in discussion with its International Partners to ensure that Jules Verne will be able to fly at the earliest feasible and safe opportunity, thereby demonstrating that Europe has the ability to provide the logistics capability. It is also a way for Europe to pay its share in ISS running costs by spending money within the European industry rather than by cash transfers to its International Partners.

Graphic showing all the steps in the Automated Transfer Vehicle mission scenario - starting with the launch from Kourou, in French Guiana, and ending with the destructive re-entry in the Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.

Credits: ESA - D. Ducros

Source: ESA - News

14 December 2006

On 29 March 2007 ESA DG Jean-Jacques Dordain and Her Excellency Ms Sarah Dennis, New Zealand's Ambassador to France, signed an arrangement on the installation of a transportable telemetry station to track the Ariane 5 launcher that will carry into orbit ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) for its maiden flight in autumn this year.

Credits: ESA-S.Corvaja

ESA PR 17-2007. Today ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain and Her Excellency Ms Sarah Dennis, New Zealand's Ambassador to France, signed an arrangement on the installation of a transportable telemetry station to track the Ariane 5 launcher that will carry into orbit ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) for its maiden flight in autumn this year.

Europe's ATV will be one of the vital supply craft for the International Space Station, delivering equipment and spare parts as well as food, air and water for its permanent crew. Once docked to the ISS, the ATV will serve to re-boost the space station; then, as part of a controlled re-entry, it will burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere, disposing of waste material no longer needed on the ISS.

For the launch of the first ATV, named Jules Verne, the Ariane 5 launcher has been specifically adapted (*). The launcher will place the ATV in a 260 km circular orbit inclined 51.6° to the equator. From this orbit the ATV will use its own propulsion system to automatically reach and dock with the ISS.

On 29 March 2007 ESA DG Jean-Jacques Dordain and Her Excellency Ms Sarah Dennis, New Zealand's Ambassador to France, signed an arrangement on the installation of a transportable telemetry station to track the Ariane 5 launcher that will carry into orbit ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) for its maiden flight in autumn this year.

Credits: ESA-S.Corvaja

The mission analysis for this specific Ariane 5/ATV flight confirmed the need to monitor over southern Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) the separation of the ATV, its injection into the target orbit and the third ignition of the launcher’s upper stage.

ESA decided to expand the existing Ariane ground tracking and telemetry station network for this purpose. An initial survey mission took place in New Zealand in March 2004, the aim being to find a suitable setting for a transportable telemetry station, able to satisfy the very stringent visibility requirements imposed by the mission.

After extensive preliminary analysis, a site in the Awarua area of Invercargill was eventually selected due to its excellent visibility of the trajectory. The preparatory works (civil works, road adaptation, concrete platform, power, telecommunications, fences, etc.) started in January of this year, with final site acceptance expected by mid-May. The site preparation works, funded by ESA, represent an investment of over €200k.

The tracking station, which will be used for the Ariane 5/ATV Jules Verne mission, is being leased by the French space agency CNES- Guiana Space Centre and supplied and operated by the OTB-Overberg Test Range, South Africa, under a CNES contract.


(*) Note

Ariane 5 ES is derived from the Ariane 5 G+ and Ariane 5 ECA versions. It has the same lower composite as Ariane 5 ECA and will use exactly the same solid propellant boosters as the Ariane 5 ECA version, as well as the same cryogenic main stage equipped with the improved Vulcain 2 engine. The upper composite has a new reinforced vehicle equipment bay (VEB) to withstand ATV flight loads and a re-ignitable storable propulsion stage. For the ATV mission, the re-ignition capability has been incorporated to maximise the launcher's performance in terms of the target orbit and to meet mission requirements.

A first storable propulsion stage ignition takes place immediately following separation of the cryogenic main stage. The engine is then cut off and the VEB-storable propulsion stage-ATV composite commences a ballistic phase of about 45 minutes, at the end of which a second ignition occurs for a short duration before the ATV is separated and injected into the target Low Earth Orbit.

A third and last ignition is then carried out to enable the almost empty VEB-storable propulsion stage composite to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. There it safely destructs in the upper layers of the atmosphere.

Source: ESA - ATV

The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is the first fully automatic re-supply spacecraft of its kind.

Credits: ESA

14 June 2007

Europe’s first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is ready for launch and will be shipped to Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, in mid-July for a launch campaign that will last several months.

The on-going qualification review, launcher availability (a specially built Ariane 5 version) and 'heavy traffic' at the International Space Station towards the end of the year, lead to a revised launch window that sees now a possibility for the Jules Verne ATV to lift-off not earlier than mid-January 2008.

Once in Kourou, the ATV will have to undergo integration and further tests – as is customary for all spacecraft before launch. Only upon completion of such tests and taking into account the schedule of the Ariane launches will it be possible to set a precise launch date.


Jules Verne is the first of a series of ATVs which will bring supplies including food, water, and fuel as well as experiment equipment to the crew on board the International Space Station. A crucial element of the ISS programme, the ATV will also re-boost the Station’s orbit to overcome the effects of residual atmospheric drag.

After six months the ATV will undock and be used to dispose of Station waste during a guided and controlled destructive re-entry into the atmosphere high over the Pacific Ocean.

Source: ESA - ATV

The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is the first fully automatic re-supply spacecraft of its kind.

Credits: ESA/D. Ducros

15 June 2007

ESA PR 24-2007. Time to bid farewell to the most sophisticated spacecraft ever built in Europe. The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) will leave ESA's ESTEC establishment in the Netherlands in mid-July and be shipped to Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

There, it will start its launch preparation campaign which will last several months, before being launched by Ariane 5 not earlier than mid-January 2008 and, after a 12 to 15 day journey, docking automatically with the International Space Station using its own propulsion and navigation systems.

To mark the upcoming departure of this first ATV, the Jules Verne, ESA is inviting media representatives interested in covering this event to attend a Media Day on 28 June at ESTEC. This will not only feature an opportunity to see the Jules Verne in its clean room at the test centre there but also presentations by experts from ESA and industry on the latest status of the project. The programme also includes ATV photo and video opportunities as well as opportunities to interview various experts.

Media representatives wishing to attend the ATV Media Day are kindly requested to fill out the attached accreditation form and return it by fax to the ESA-ESTEC Communication Office at + 31 71 565 5728 by Tuesday 26 June at the latest.


Note:

The ATV European resupply spaceship is a crucial element of the International Space Station (ISS) programme. It will deliver refuelling propellant for the Station’s own propulsion system, as well as air and drinking water for the crew. It will also transport science experiments and related hardware, thus making a major contribution to ISS logistics. The ATV will also give the Space Station an orbit reboost to overcome the effects of residual atmospheric drag. After serving for six months as a work space extension of the ISS, its final task after undocking will be to dispose of waste during a guided and controlled destructive reentry into the atmosphere, high over the Pacific.

Source: ESA - ATV

Members of the media catch final glimpse of Jules Verne ahead of shipping to French Guiana. In Mid-July Jules Verne, the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), is due to leave the ESTEC Test Centre for Europe's Spaceport in Kourou.

Credits: ESA - A. Le Floc'h

2 July 2007

Last week, members of the international press visited the clean rooms at ESTEC, ESA's research and technology centre, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, to view the Automated Transfer Vehicle for the very last time in Europe. In mid-July the spaceship will leave for the launch site at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is presented in two sections. The section containing rocket engines, flight electronics and the propellant is still surrounded with 10-metre high scaffolding. The journalists get their last glimpse of the thousands of wires, each painstakingly labelled and neatly concealed in the interior of the spacecraft.

The ATV Media Day opened with a series of presentations. Left to right: Jean-François Clervoy, ESA astronaut and ATV project advisor, Nicolas Chamussy, Astrium ATV Programme Director, John Ellwood, ESA ATV Project Manager, Daniel Sacotte, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight, Microgravity and Exploration.

Credits: ESA - A. Le Floc'h

Just beyond that stands the second section - the front of the spacecraft. The docking mechanism and laser cameras are covered for protection. The opposite end remains open. This is the carrier of the fluid cargo (air, oxygen, refuelling propellant and water) and the dry cargo (food, clothes, experiments and personal items for the astronauts) which is delivered to the International Space Station (ISS).

Once docked with the Space Station, this pressurised 'storage cupboard' will provide the astronauts with extra working space. After six months of dutiful service, this cupboard will be loaded with Station waste before the ATV is undocked for a destructive re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

As well as the two main spacecraft sections, the clean rooms are littered with hundreds of smaller items that are also heading for French Guiana. Outside there are more still. Transport crates containing parts, apparatus and special tools. Together it adds up to 400 tonnes of hardware, whilst the ATV itself weighs 'just' 11 tonnes when empty.


Tests

ATV Media Day at ESTEC ahead of departure of Jules Verne, the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), to Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

Credits: ESA - A. Le Floc'h

During its stay in the ESTEC Test Centre, the first ATV, named Jules Verne, was thoroughly put through its paces. These included testing in the electromagnetic chamber. There the spacecraft was assessed for electromagnetic interference. In layman's terms: to check that none of the electrical apparatus interfered with each other – like the windscreen wipers in an old car that cause static on the radio.

Once ATV was shown to be electrically sound, the spacecraft was moved to the acoustic chamber; here it was shown to be able to withstand the noise and vibrations of launch with the Ariane 5 rocket. And finally, a three-week test in the Large Space Simulator confirmed that all components will function properly in the vacuum and extreme temperatures of the space environment.


Proud

'We are very happy and proud that ATV is about to leave ESTEC', said Daniel Sacotte, ESA's Director of Human Spaceflight, Microgravity and Exploration. 'Today marks the end of a long test campaign and the start of the launch campaign. Once ATV is launched, Europe can start to fully utilise the International Space Station.'

Jean-François Clervoy (left), ESA astronaut and ATV project advisor and John Ellwood (right), ATV Project Manager, stand in front of the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) in the ESTEC Test Centre.

Credits: ESA - A. Le Floc'h

Jules Verne is the first of five ATVs ESA plans to use to send cargo to the Station. The development, production and launch of the first vehicle have cost over 11 years around 1.3 billion Euros. Each of the following ATVs assembly and launch will cost just over 300 million Euros. In this way Europe will pay for utilisation of the ISS, which includes conducting scientific experiments and astronaut missions.

'ATV is much more that a spaceship', emphasises ATV Project Manager John Ellwood with justified pride. 'It is a cargo ship, a laboratory, a rocket and two spacecrafts all in one. The primary spacecraft performs all the nominal tasks and we have a completely independent back-up spacecraft which will take over if there is any question of safety.’

ATV will go down in history as the first spacecraft that automatically and safely docks with the ISS without a full manual override capability. 'If it goes to plan', explains Jean-François Clervoy, ESA astronaut and ATV project advisor, 'the crew on board ISS won't have to do much. They only have to transfer the cargo from ATV to the Station.' Of course the astronauts are trained to intervene if any potentially dangerous situation arises.


Launch campaign

ATV Media Day at ESTEC ahead of departure of Jules Verne, the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), to Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

Credits: ESA - A. Le Floc'h

In mid-July ATV leaves - along with all the items necessary for launch – by boat to French Guiana. There, the eighteen-week launch campaign will get underway. The two ATV sections will be bolted together. The solar arrays will be mounted, fuel tanks filled and many last checks performed to make sure the launch goes without a single hitch.

At the same time, ten simulations will take place between the various control centres involved in the mission. ESA's ATV Control Centre, in Toulouse, France, NASA's Johnson Space Centre, in Houston, the United States, and the Russian Control Centre, TsUP, in Moscow, will run through the mission from launch, through to docking and finally to re-entry, pinpointing any potential problems. Sacotte: 'The ATV campaign is highly complex and there is still a lot to be done. But if we are to launch at the start of next year, we will be fully prepared.'

Source: ESA - News

2 July 2007

The Automated Transfer Vehicle's (ATV) Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC) is prepared for transportation from ESA's research and technology centre, ESTEC, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, to Europe's Spaceport, in Kourou, French Guiana

Credits: ESA - A. Le Floc'h

Jules Verne, the first Automated Transfer Vehicle, will this evening leave ESA’s research and technology centre, ESTEC, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands - for the start of a long journey to Kourou.

Just ten days after the completion of final integration and space environment tests at the ESTEC test facilities, Jules Verne is now packed up and ready to leave on the first leg of the journey to Europe’s Spaceport, in Kourou, French Guiana.

The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), 20 tonnes and the size of a London double-decker bus, is the largest spacecraft ever built in Europe. The unmanned vehicle will be used to ferry cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) and to raise its orbit.


Mind boggling

Section of Jules Verne, the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is lowered onto a transportation trolley at ESA's research and technology centre, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. After ten weeks of packing activities, ATV leaves ESTEC for Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, on 13 July 2007.

Credits: ESA - A. Le Floc'h

For the past 10 weeks a specialised team has prepared a total of around 400 tonnes equipment for shipment across the Atlantic Ocean. Each item individually documented and then carefully packed into one of around 50 shipping containers, most of which have already been dispatched by truck to Rotterdam harbour.

With the amount of parts, apparatus and tools accompanying Jules Verne to Kourou – if laid out on the ground, the cargo would cover a total area of some 1500 m2 - the logistics involved are mind boggling.

“One of the major issues has been getting the customs paperwork in order,” explains Stefan Brosze, ATV Transportation Manager. “There are members of our team who know exactly where to find everything, right down to the very smallest items.”


Rotterdam harbour

Section of Jules Verne, the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is lowered onto a transportation trolley at ESA's research and technology centre, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. After ten weeks of packing activities, ATV leaves ESTEC for Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, on 13 July 2007.

Credits: ESA - A. Le Floc'h

Tonight’s operation sees the departure of the main spacecraft sections which are packed inside three large white containers. At around 21:30 CEST, a convoy of vehicles will leave ESTEC, travelling just 5 km to a nearby harbour. The journey continues the next day onboard two canal barges, finally arriving in Rotterdam harbour on Sunday.

Jules Verne is scheduled to set sail from Rotterdam next Tuesday onboard the French cargo ship MN Toucan, a vessel which is normally used by Arianespace to transport Ariane rocket components on the same route across the Atlantic Ocean.

Some eleven days later, MN Toucan arrives at Pariacabo harbour in Kourou. From there the ship’s cargo is transferred by road to Europe’s Spaceport. “Our job is not finished until we have delivered everything to the S5 Building without one single scratch,” says Brosze. “Only then will we crack open the champagne!”

Source: ESA - News

1 August 2007


ATV arrives at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana

After a transatlantic crossing by sea, Jules Verne, the first Automated Transfer Vehicle for the International Space Station, arrived at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, yesterday morning.

Nearly two weeks after leaving Rotterdam harbour, the French cargo ship MN Toucan, carrying around 400 tonnes of spacecraft and equipment for the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), sailed into Pariacabo harbour on Monday afternoon.

Operations to unload the International Space Station (ISS) re-supply cargo spacecraft started later the same day. The final section of the ATV spacecraft was disembarked on Tuesday morning and driven by truck to the S5 building at Europe's Spaceport.



French cargo ship MN Toucan approaches Pariacabo - 30 July 2007



French cargo ship MN Toucan arrives at Pariacabo - 30 July 2007



ATV containers are unloaded after arriving in Kourou on board French cargo ship MN Toucan



ATV arrives at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana



ATV arrives at the S5 building at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana


Container holding the ATV Integrated Cargo Carrier is lifted off the back of a truck at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou



The container is moved inside the S5 building


ATV transportation containers inside the S5 building at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou

All photos, Credits: 2007 - ESA /CNES/Arianespace/Photo optique video du CSG

Source: ESA - News

The ATV’s Integrated Cargo Carrier section arrives at the Spaceport after completing its trans-Atlantic voyage aboard the MN Toucan roll-on-roll-off transport ship.

July 31, 2007

The Spaceport welcomes a record-setting payload with the arrival of Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle

The Spaceport in French Guiana is alive with excitement today as one of the largest unmanned spacecraft ever built begins its preparations for an Ariane 5 launch early next year.

This massive payload – the European Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) – marks a true milestone in the Ariane program and for Arianespace’s commercial launch services as well. With a liftoff mass of 19,400 kg., the ATV will be the heaviest payload orbited by Ariane, and it also represents Arianespace’s first mission in support of the International Space Station.


During its transfer, the protective container with ATV’s
Integrated Cargo Carrier was cooled by air supplied from
an environmental control unit.

The ATV “Jules Verne” arrived in French Guiana this weekend aboard the MN Toucan roll-on-roll-off transport ship, completing a trans-Atlantic trip that began July 17 from Europe’s Rotterdam harbor. MN Toucan is one of two sea-going vessels utilized by Arianespace, and its cargo weighed approximately 460 metric tons – which included the ATV elements, its large load of propellant, and an extensive complement of ground support equipment.

Unloading of the MN Toucan at Pariacabo port began last night and continued today as a caravan of trucks brought the special-purpose shipping containers to the nearby launch site.

The ATV’s main elements – composed of the Integrated Cargo Carrier, Propulsion Module, four solar panels and a special flight adapter – have been moved into the S5C high bay area of the Spaceport’s massive S5 payload preparation facility. Most of the ATV support equipment will be set up inside the S5C building, while fueling support gear and ground handling hardware will be stored until the launch campaign moves into its next phase in the S5B integration hall.


The convoy with the ATV’s Integrated Cargo Carrier
pulls up at the S5 payload preparation facility, where
checkout and integration activity will be performed.

For Jean-Michel Desobeau, Arianespace’s ATV Program Manager, the Automated Transfer Vehicle’s arrival in French Guiana culminates eight years of preparations for this record-setting Ariane 5 passenger.

“It is fantastic to see the ATV at the Spaceport,” he said. “Its arrival means we’re entering the final straightway for a true milestone in spaceflight, which involves not only Europe but the other International Space Station partners as well, including the United States and Russia.”

The ATV will play a key role in the supply of the International Space Station, bringing food, air, water, propellant and experimental equipment to the manned facility in low Earth orbit. This giant spacecraft is 10.3 meters tall and 4.5 meters in diameter, and will fit under the Ariane 5’s large payload fairing. Currently, five ATV missions are planned in the coming years – all carried by Ariane 5s launched from the Spaceport.

While the ATV is to be orbited as a single passenger on a dedicated Ariane 5 ES launch vehicle, its preparation campaign will be similar – although longer in duration – to the more typical Arianespace flights, which carry two telecommunications satellites into geostationary transfer orbit.

“The ATV’s Propulsion Module and Integrated Cargo Carrier will be processed as separate elements prior to their integration, so it is basically is similar to the handling of two spacecraft,” Desobeau explained. “In addition, the ATV is fitted with four large solar panels – the equivalent of two solar panel sets for a typical dual-payload of telecom satellites on Ariane 5.”


An artist’s concept depicts the ATV
installed under the Ariane 5’s payload
fairing.

Desobeau added that the Spaceport’s infrastructure is well suited to handle the ATV while also allowing Arianespace to build up its launch rate for other commercial missions.

“The S5 preparation facility was sized from the start for very large payloads, including the ATV,” he said. “The S5’s large processing capacity – combined with the other clean room facilities at the Spaceport – enables us to handle several launch campaign in parallel.”

Arianespace is accelerating its launch rate from the targeted six Ariane 5 missions in 2007 to a stabilized rate of eight flights annually by 2009.

For the ATV’s maiden flight early next year, the Jules Verne will transport 1,300 kg. of “dry cargo” in the pressurized module, along with some 280 liters of drinkable water and 20 kg. of breathable air for delivery to the International Space Station.

In addition, the spacecraft will carry a large amount of propellant, which is to be loaded during pre-launch operations in the Spaceport’s S5B hall. This includes nearly six metric tons of monomethylhydrazine (MMH) fuel and mixed oxides of nitrogen (MON) oxidizer for the ATV’s own propulsion system, plus 860 kg. of additional propellant for the Space Station’s propulsion unit that operates on unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) and nitrogen tetroxide (N2O4).

Source: Arianespace Feature Story

3 August 2007

Three teams, with a total of 30 people, work at ATV-CC at CNES Toulouse facility, in 3 different control rooms separated by glass walls:
- In the centre of the photo, the Flight Control Team, in charge of the ATV operations during the first Joint Integrated Simulation which happened 31 July 2007. The main control room is dedicated to the ATV mission execution/management performed by the CNES flight control team, headed by the flight director.
- The ESA ATV Operations Management Team (OMT), in charge of the overall operations preparation and execution activities, and of decision making for off-nominal and emergencies situations (on the right side)
- The Engineering Support Team, providing flight analysis and expertise for the whole mission. (on the left side)

Credits: ESA

For the first time, three human spaceflight mission control centres – located in three countries – have this week successfully simulated the critical rendezvous of the Automated Transfer Vehicle, the largest and most complex automatic spacecraft, with the International Space Station.

The actual rendezvous will take place early in 2008 with the launch and docking of the most sophisticated spacecraft ever built in Europe, the Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV).

"We are ready for rendezvous final approach," said the ATV Control Centre (ATV-CC), at the French space agency (CNES) facility in Toulouse, with a pronounced French accent. "You have a ‘go’ for final approach from MCC-H," replied Houston’s Mission Control in a Texan drawl. And, finally, the third voice, clearly that of a Russian speaker at the Moscow Control Center (TsUP): "Okay, you have the ‘go’ for final approach up to docking".

Lead control centre

Adam Baker (left) and Nick Richardson are the NASA representatives at the ATV-CC main control room in Toulouse during simulations. Adam Baker has also led the ATV Multi-Element Procedure development for ATV missions on NASA side. In future joint operations, some representatives of each space agency will be monitorieng the mission in the three control centres.

Credits: ESA

"It's a big jump for spaceflight operations in Europe, with the ATV Control Centre teams proving they can operate effectively in the ISS environment, which is not an easy thing," said Bob Chesson, ESA's manager for Human Spaceflight and Exploration Operations. "Today is our biggest achievement so far after more than seven years of efforts at the ATV Control Centre."

For the first time, the new ATV Control Centre in Toulouse acted as the lead mission control centre in charge of man-rated operations for the ATV while the Mission Control Centres in Moscow and in Houston supported and authorized the rendezvous to the ISS in real time. The 30-strong team in Toulouse was in charge of operating and sending the 'GO' commands to the automated spacecraft.


Orchestra

The simulation started almost eight hours before docking to the ISS and was particularly complex because it had to respect all the scheduled steps performed by the ATV-CC and all the necessary tasks to be executed in the different centres involved and by the ISS crew (who was 'simulated' by crew representatives present in Moscow). The role of each centre is clearly defined in a sequential form.

Overall, this challenging achievement can be compared to three different groups of musicians located in different parts of the world and in different time zones, and playing as one orchestra, each playing its part in time and without hitting wrong notes. Yet, these simulations prove even more difficult than such a concert rehearsal; the timeline of the critical orbital approach – with factors such as the Sun illumination restrictions in orbit and the Russian tracking ground station requirements – makes it impossible to stop a spaceflight phase and begin again if delays build up beyond 20 minutes. In that case, the rendezvous must be aborted, the simulation ending in failure.

Fine-tuning

For the first time in Europe, the new ATV Control Centre, in Toulouse, handles a man-rated automatic mission towards the ISS. For the Jules Verne ATV mission scheduled early next year, the ATV-CC will act as the lead mission control centre in charge of man-rated operations for the ATV while the Mission Control Centres in Moscow and in Houston supported and authorized the rendezvous to the ISS in real time. The 30-strong control room team in Toulouse is in charge of operating and sending the GO commands to the automated spacecraft.

Credits: ESA

"We are quite satisfied with the success of this first Joint Integrated Simulation which shows that the system works fine and that now everyone, including the partners, believes that we are on the right tracks to do it!," said Dominique Cornier, the ATV Project Operations Manager. He has led development, with the Russian and the U.S. partners, together with CNES and Astrium ATV specialists, of the Multi-Element Procedures (MEPs) required to allocate tasks to the different centres.

"Some improvement and fine-tuning in the synchronization of the different centres can still be achieved. That is why we are planning for a dozen more simulations including some failure scenarios before the actual Jules Verne mission. But overall we are quite happy with this success – it has also shown that our teams are able to react quickly to little bugs we faced in real time," added Hervé Côme, ESA's ATV Mission Director at ATV-CC during this first Joint Integrated Simulation.


Sixty controllers

As the ATV nears the ISS during rendezvous, ATV-CC flight controllers direct the Jules Verne to a step-by-step predefined approach using specific optical sensors and GPS technology. This approach requires authorisation from the Mission Control Centre in Moscow (MCC-M) – because it docks with the Russian Svezda segment of ISS – and an overall coordination with the Mission Control Centre in Houston (MCC-H), which is responsible for the entire ISS. For each of these steps, the ATV performs automated manoeuvres which are closely monitored by almost 60 controllers on three continents.

"Even if the simulation replicates – with powerful computers – the ATV behaviour and the ISS complexity, it really tests the coherence and the full compatibility of the audio, video and huge computers of the different space agencies around the world," said Martial Vanhove, the ATV Flight Director from CNES, who was the voice of the Toulouse control centre.

Teamwork

The Vehicle Manager for the Jules Verne ATV is the person in charge of sending the critical orders to the spacecraft in orbit. He has to get first the approval of the ATV-CC Flight Director and the GO command from Mission Control Centres in Moscow and in Houston.

Although people will not be launched on board an ATV, astronauts dressed in regular clothing, will be able to access cargo and systems - whilst the bus-sized spacecraft is docked to the ISS. The dual challenge facing ATV is to fulfil both the demanding requirements of human spacecraft safety, as well as the critical robotics capabilities to perform automatic rendezvous and docking.

Credits: ESA

The simulation also checks the teamwork and the interaction between real operators from several countries and different technological cultures. Finally, the ATV simulator in Toulouse operates with the actual state-of-the-art flight software of Jules Verne, which includes nearly 10 times the number of lines of code needed for Ariane 5. Billions of bits of telemetry were also exchanged between the different sites.

"In Houston, about two dozen operators participated from the Mission Control Centre in Building 30 South," said Adam Baker, the NASA representative who worked from inside the Toulouse control room during this simulation, and who led the ATV Multi-Element Procedure development on the NASA side. In future joint operations, representatives from each space agency will be in each of the three control centres.

For the next full simulation, planned in late August, future ISS crew members will also take part from Moscow. From there they will monitor the ATV during its approach to the ISS. Even though ATV is a fully automated spaceship with a multiple-fault tolerant capability, in case of emergencies the ISS crew can independently initiate the Collision Avoidance Manoeuvre (CAM) to move the 20-tonne spaceship away from the Station during the rendezvous phase.

Source: ESA - News

August 3, 2007

The Automated Transfer Vehicle enters its checkout phase at Europe’s Spaceport

A very special payload is now undergoing initial processing at the Spaceport as Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) begins its checkout process in preparation for an Ariane 5 launch to the International Space Station.

The ATV “Jules Verne” was delivered this week to French Guiana, and is scheduled for an early 2008 Arianespace mission aboard an Ariane 5 ES launcher. Development of the ATV was performed under European Space Agency management, and the industrial team is led by EADS Astrium.

As one of the largest unmanned spacecraft ever built, the ATV is composed of two major spacecraft elements: the Integrated Cargo Carrier and Propulsion Module. Both elements are now in the S5C high-bay area of the Spaceport’s S5 payload preparation facility, and are being linked to the electrical and system test benches that will be used during the ATV’s multi-month preparation phase.

The following photos show the Integrated Cargo Carrier and Propulsion Module as they emerged from their shipping containers and were readied for checkout. (Click on the images for a larger version):

____________________________________________

This drawing illustrates the ATV in its flight configuration. When assembled, the ATV will be 10.3 meters tall, with a liftoff mass of 19,400 kg. – the heaviest payload ever orbited by Ariane 5. The four large solar panels evident in this drawing will be folded for launch, enabling the ATV to be integrated under Ariane 5’s large payload fairing.



The ATV’s Propulsion Module emerges from the shipping container that provided protection during its sea voyage from Rotterdam harbor. ATV components were transported by the MN Toucan, which is one of two roll-on-roll-off ships used by Arianespace to carry Ariane launch vehicles and other spaceflight hardware to French Guiana.



EADS team members take their first close-up look at the Propulsion Module in the S5C high bay. Four main engines and 28 smaller thrusters on the Propulsion Module will enable the ATV to perform multiple functions when mated to the International Space Station, including attitude control, debris avoidance maneuvers and boosting the Station's orbit to overcome the effects of atmospheric drag.



A wide-angle photo shows the Integrated Cargo Carrier as this ATV component is readied to be removed from its shipping container. The two oblong-shaped grey covers at left and right protect the Russian-supplied fueling systems that will deliver 860 kg. of propellant for the International Space Station’s own Russian-built propulsion unit. Three large ball-shaped tanks (protected by the gray covers) will carry water, while the trio of smaller tanks (wrapped in blue protection) will be filled with breathable air for the International Space Station crews. The center hatch will be used to load the ATV’s cargos.



The ATV’s Integrated Cargo Carrier is topped off by a Russian-built docking and refueling system (visible on the module's end, at right). ATV docking will occur at the International Space Station’s Russian service module, and the ATV will remain attached to the manned orbital facility for up to six months. For its maiden flight early next year, the ATV will transport 1,300 kg. of “dry cargo” in the pressurized module, along with some 280 liters of drinkable water and 20 kg. of breathable air.

Source: Arianespace Feature Story

August 9, 2007

The ATV’s flight elements begin integration and checks at Europe’s Spaceport

Initial integration work is now underway with the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) at Europe’s Spaceport as this very large payload moves ahead with its processing for an early 2008 launch on Ariane 5.

Current activity in the S5C high-bay area of the Spaceport’s S5 payload preparation facility includes verification of the ATV’s Integrated Cargo Carrier and Propulsion Module with the Separation and Distancing Module. The cylindrical Separation and Distancing Module is an adapter that serves as the interface between the assembled ATV and its Ariane 5 launch vehicle.

Once launched by Arianespace, the ATV will deliver equipment and supplies to the International Space Station, along with food, air and water for its crew. Named the “Jules Verne” after France’s visionary 19th century science fiction writer, the ATV was developed in a program managed by the European Space Agency. (Click on the images for a larger version):

____________________________________________

The ATV’s two major elements are shown side-by-side in the S5C high-bay. In the foreground is the Propulsion Module, with the Integrated Cargo Carrier visible behind it. When assembled, the ATV will be one of the largest unmanned spacecraft ever built, and the heaviest payload by far to be orbited by Ariane 5. Its liftoff is scheduled for early 2008 on an Ariane 5 ES version of Arianespace’s workhorse launcher.


This underside view details the Propulsion Module’s four main engines, which are rated at a thrust of 490 Newtons each. The engines operate on six metric tons of MMH fuel and MON oxidizer, and will power the ATV to its rendezvous with the International Space Station. Once the ATV is docked, these engines will be able to perform attitude control and debris avoidance maneuvers for the orbital space station, and boost its orbit to overcome the effects of atmospheric drag. (Also visible in the photograph is a cone-shaped antenna for the Russian KURS rendezvous/docking system).


Team members from ATV industrial prime contractor EADS Astrium hoist the Propulsion Module inside the S5C high-bay clean room. Visible on the ATV’s Propulsion Module vertical side panels are the mounting holes for two of the four ATV solar arrays, which will have a total span of 22.3 meters when deployed on orbit. During launch, the panels will be folded to allow the ATV’s integration under Ariane 5’s payload fairing.


The Separation and Distancing Module is prepared for its integration with the ATV’s Propulsion Module. This overhead view underscores the large size of ATV components, and illustrates the 700-sq-meter S5C high bay’s ability to easily accommodate such massive payloads in its clean room. The S5C is one of three interconnected clean high bays within the Spaceport’s S5 facility, which enables Arianespace to handle multiple launch campaigns by preparing and fueling several spacecraft in parallel.


The ATV’s Propulsion Module is positioned for installation atop the Separation and Distancing Module, which is partly visible inside the integration fixture. In its final configuration, the ATV “stack” will be compl