Automated Transfer Vehicle

by Nick Harris on May 4

ATV Capsule Informational: ATVStyle.com is dedicated to ATVs which stands for All-Terrain Vehicles, often referred to as quads or four wheelers, however the Google site search feature has provided some insight as to what visitors of ATVStyle.com are looking for and a pattern has emerged that several visitors are in fact looking for a DIFFERENT kind of ATV – The Automated Transfer Vehicle used during space travel.

While I’m not going to change the focus of ATV Style to include space vehicles just yet I do want to create this article to help guide our space interested friends to the information they want. I recommend Wikipedia.org.

Question: What does ATV stand for? Answer: ATV is an acronym and All-Terrain Vehicle, Automated Transfer Vehicle, Analog Television and/or Advanced Television are popular meanings for ATV. ATV Style covers only the first type, here is the current Wikipedia definition for Automated Transfer vehicle.

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. ATVs can also boost the station into a higher orbit.

The first ATV, named Jules Verne, was launched in March of 2008 and suppliers have been asked to produce four more ATVs to be flown until 2015. A total of seven ATVs could eventually be launched, their destination being the International Space Station, according to mission managers. Approximately €1.35 billion EUR has been spent by ESA on the ATV program thus far.

Design

The ATV is designed to complement the Progress spacecraft which has three times its capacity. The ATV carries bulk liquids and relatively fragile freight which is stored in a cargo hold kept in a pressurized environment so that astronauts can have access to it without wearing a spacesuit. The ATVs pressurized cargo hold is based on the designs of 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.

Each ATV weighs 20.7 tonnes at launch and has a cargo capacity of 8 tonnes:[1]

1,500 kilograms (3,300 lb) to 5,500 kilograms (12,000 lb) of dry cargo
Up to 840 kilograms (1,900 lb) of water
Up to 100 kilograms (220 lb) of gas (nitrogen, oxygen, air)
Up to 4,700 kilograms (10,000 lb) of propellant.

Note: 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).

ATV 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 is fully automatic, if there should be 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.

Development

The primary contractor for the ATV is EADS Astrium Space Transportation, a leading a consortium of many sub-contractors. In order to facilitate the relationship between the contractor and ESA, an integrated ESA team was established for the duration of the development period.

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. EADS Astrium Space Transportation builds ATVs in its facility in Bremen. Contracts and accords were signed in 2004 for four more ATVs, which should be launched bi-yearly.

RSC Energia signed a 40 million euro contract with a main subcontractor of EADS Astrium Space Transportation, the Italian company Alenia Spazio (now 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.

In addition to its use by ESA and Russia, the ATV was in the running to service NASA under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. Under the proposal, a joint venture between EADS and Boeing, an ATV would be launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, using a Delta IV rocket. Ultimately however it was not awarded a contract.

Proposed manned version

The aerospace company EADS Astrium and the German Space Agency (the DLR), announced on 14 May 2008 that they would pursue a project to adapt the ATV into a crew transportation system. The craft would be able to launch a 3 man crew beyond LEO via use of a modified version of the Ariane 5 rocket and would be more spacious than the Russian Soyuz. A mock-up of the proposed craft was shown at the 2008 International Aerospace Exhibition in Berlin. If the project is given ESA approval development will proceed in two stages.

The first stage would see the development of an Advanced Return Vehicle (ARV) capable of transporting up to 1,500kg of cargo from space to earth safely (see CARV above) by 2015.[20] This capability would be available to ESA even if further development were to be halted. It would prove useful in the ISS program as well as the proposed Mars Sample Return Mission with NASA. ARV development would make use of work done on the Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator, Crew Return Vehicle and related projects. The budget for this stage of the ATV overhaul would reportedly be €300 million.
The second stage would adapt the then existing capsule to be able to transport people safely as well as upgrade the propulsion and other systems in the service module and would last 4 to 5 years (until 2020) at a cost of “a couple of billion (€)” according to a senior Astrium representative.

Both ESA and EADS Astrium are also involved in the Crew Space Transportation System development program along with JAXA and the Russian Federal Space Agency. Though ESA’s head of the future transport and infrastructure division, Marco Caporicci has denied that the manned ATV evolutions project is an alternative to the CSTS it is unlikely that ESA will pursue both projects. In November 2008, the ESA budgeted for a feasibility study into developing a re-entry capsule for the ATV, a requirement for developing a manned version.

Now, if only Nasa could figure out how to build some ATV trails in space!

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