The ATV Jules Verne has been cleared for launch for March 9 at Europe’s space port in Kourou, French Guiana.
The vehicle is an unmanned European resupply ship for the International Space Station. The Russian space agency and NASA are partner’s in this endeavor.
Resupply items frequently needed on the ISS are propellant, water, air, other payloads and various experiments.
The ATV can also provide an orbital boost to the ISS. The space station’s orbit degrades due to drag encountered in the atmosphere which gradually slows the orbital speed. The ATV will be launched by an Ariane 5 rocket ; together, both the ATV and the launcher weigh 460 tons.
Ariane 5 (Wikipedia.org)
This is the first flight of the ATV after many delays. Designed to compliment the Progress spacecraft, it has 3x the capacity of Progress. It can carry bulk liquids in a pressurized environment.
The ATV itself weighs nearly 21 metric tons and has a cargo capacity of 9 metric tons. It is a successor to the Hermes mini-shuttle, similar to the U.S. proposed Dyna-Soar X20. Development of the Hermes was cancelled in 1993.
The spacecraft will be put into orbit at 186 miles (300km) above the Earth. The ATV will be an important resource to carry cargo into space especially since the space shuttle will soon be retired by NASA. Missions to resupply the ISS are planned for every 17 months.
The ATV is named after Jules Verne (1828 – 1905), a French author who was a pioneer in the development of science fiction stories. He authored Journey to the Center of the Earth; Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea; and, Around the World in Eighty Days .
March 8, 2008 at 6:49 am
I’d never really thought about how they got supplies up to the ISS – it’s quite a crucial issue really, because otherwise anyone onboard the ISS would suffocate and dehydrate.
Transporting air, water and other essentials is going to be a vital part of plans to go to Mars (which would be 3-year mission) and to build a permanently inhabited base on the Moon.
It’s a very interesting issue considering it’s not something I’d ever thought about before.
March 8, 2008 at 7:49 am
The Mars supply issue is interesting. NASA has said that because of weight & space constraints, they would only send enough fuel & water for the astronauts to land on Mars. Once on Mars, they would chemically create the fuel for the return trip. I’m not sure how they would do this and perhaps it is just one scenario they’re throwing around.
March 9, 2008 at 1:25 pm
[...] Russian ‘Progress’ ship. But now a new way to supply the ISS has just blasted off from French Guinea in South America: the Jules Verne ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) has a huge capacity (about 5 [...]