Automated Transfer Vehicle

The Automated Transfer Vehicle, originally Ariane Transfer Vehicle or ATV, was an expendable cargo spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), used for space cargo transport in 2008–2015. The ATV design was launched to orbit five times, exclusively by the Ariane 5 heavy-lift launch vehicle. It effectively was a larger European counterpart to the Russian Progress cargo spacecraft for carrying upmass to a single destination—the International Space Station (ISS)—but with three times the capacity.

History

The five ATVs were named after important European figures in science and engineering: Jules Verne, Johannes Kepler, Edoardo Amaldi, Albert Einstein, and Georges Lemaître. Following several delays to the program, the first of these was launched in March 2008. These ATVs performed supply missions to the ISS, transporting various payloads such as propellant, water, air, food, and scientific research equipment; ATVs also reboosted the station into a higher orbit while docked. The ATV was an uncrewed platform that operated with a high level of automation, such as its docking sequence; at no point was it used for transporting passengers.

Further use of the ATV was proposed in 2008. Various further developments, including crewed versions of the ATV as well as opportunities to reuse sections or elements of its technology, were studied by both the ESA and Airbus Defence and Space, the principal manufacturer of the vehicle.

However, on 2 April 2012, the ESA announced that the ATV program would be terminated following the launch of the fifth ATV in 2014.

In 2012, ESA member states decided that the ATV design might be adapted to serve as the service module of the NASA Orion spacecraft.

In January 2013, ESA and NASA announced that they would proceed with a combined Orion and ATV derived service module, later renamed European Service Module (ESM), which would serve as a major component for the Orion crewed spacecraft. NASA’s Artemis I launched on November 16, 2022, carried the Orion spacecraft with the European Service Module (ESM) manufactured by Airbus Defence and Space for two planned low fly-by orbits to the Moon. ESA will provide the ESMs for the Artemis program up to Artemis VI with Artemis IV to provide the first humans to set foot on the Moon since 1972.

Development

Origins

During the 1990s, as the International Space Station program was taking place, it was collectively recognised by the 15 participating nations that, upon completion, the International Space Station (ISS), a crewed space station in Low Earth orbit (LEO), would require regular resupply missions in order to meet the needs of the onboard crew as well as to deliver apparatus to support the various scientific tests that would be performed on board. In October 1995, it was agreed that, amongst the various contributions to the ISS program that Europe would assume responsibility for under the auspices of the European Space Agency (ESA), one of them would be the Automated Transfer Vehicle, or ATV; this logistics-orientated spacecraft would perform the identified resupply missions to the ISS. By mid 2004, it had been announced that launch of the first ATV, which was by then undergoing electrical testing following the completion of integration work, had been postponed due to technical issues, and was reportedly scheduled to be launched during late 2005, following the issuing of a renegotiated $1.1 billion contract between the ESA and the prime contractor. In March 2005, another launch delay was declared, due to the need for greater development of the failure-mode software along with launch-window timing changes, which put the planned ATV launch back from late 2005 to an undetermined date during 2006. In October 2005, it was clarified that the new launch date for the first ATV would be during 2007.

In September 2006, it was announced that the final stage of testing on the Ariane 5's customised ATV stage was within its final phase. In December 2006, it was announced that the first ATV had completed its vacuum test, marking the successful completion of the key tests and enabling a final launch date to be set. In April 2007, the ATV was subject to four-month long qualification process in response to operational concerns, including safety queries originating from the U.S., and to examine the vehicle's potential commercialisation.

Production

Following multiple restructuring and ownership changes, Reportedly, each ATV spacecraft was costed at roughly US$300 million, which did not include launch costs. In March 2005, RSC Energia signed a €40 million contract with one of the main subcontractors of Airbus Defence and Space, the Italian company Alenia Spazio (now Thales Alenia Space), to supply the Russian Docking System, refuelling system, and Russian Equipment Control System. Within the Airbus Defence and Space led project, Thales Alenia Space is responsible for the pressurized cargo carrier section of the ATV and manufactures these at the firm's facility in Turin, Italy.

On 31 July 2007, the first ATV, Jules Verne, arrived at the ESA spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, after a nearly two-week journey from Rotterdam harbour. On 9 March 2008, Jules Verne was launched on top of an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou. On 3 April 2008, Jules Verne succeeded in automatically docking with the ISS, proving the capabilities of the ESA's first fully automated, expendable cargo resupply spacecraft. The arrival of the ATV came at a time at which there were public concerns over the logistical practicality of supplying the ISS.

In addition to its use by ESA and Russia, the ATV was at one point under consideration to perform services for NASA as part of the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program to replace the retiring Space Shuttle in its orbital cargo carrying capacity. One speculated use for NASA's ATV was to achieve the de-orbiting of the ISS once the space station had reached the end of its service life, being the only vehicle capable of doing so at that time after the Shuttle's retirement. Ultimately, the proposal was not awarded with a corresponding contract.

Design

The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) was a 1990s-design expendable cargo spacecraft. Each vehicle consisted of two distinct sections, the systems bus and the integrated cargo carrier. Data processing for the rendezvous docking maneuver and emergency abort systems were designed and manufactured by CRISA. Additional monitoring data and redundancy was provided by the Kurs automatic docking system, which was also used by Soyuz and Progress spacecraft. Visual imagery is provided by a camera on the Zvezda ISS module.

In terms of its role, the ATV was designed to complement the smaller Russian Progress spacecraft, possessing three times its useful payload capacity. Similar to the Progress, it would carry both bulk liquids and relatively fragile freight, which would be stored within a cargo hold maintained at a pressurized shirt-sleeve environment in order that astronauts would be able to access payloads without the need to put on spacesuits.

thumb|An exit hole through Kevlar–Nextel fabric after hypervelocity testing of the multilayer shielding for ESA’s ATV space freighter, simulating an impact by space debris.

The pressurized cargo section of the ATV was based on the Italian-built Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM), which was a Shuttle-carried "space barge/container" that had been previously used for transporting equipment to and from the Station. Unlike the MPLM which had to be berthed to the ISS, the ATV used the same docking mechanism as employed upon the Progress. The vehicle was launched into an orbital plane compatible with the ISS via the Ariane 5 expendable launch system; shortly after detaching from the launcher, the ATV would deploy its solar panels.

The craft was launched into a orbit atop an Ariane 5 rocket from the equatorial ELA-3 launch site at the Guiana Space Centre. The ATV separated from the rocket, and following weeks of tests and orbit adjustments, successfully docked in the International Space Station at 14:45 UTC on 3 April 2008.

In the early morning hours of 29 September 2008, the Jules Verne burnt up on entering the atmosphere above an uninhabited section of the Pacific Ocean, southwest of Tahiti.

Johannes Kepler

Launched on 17 February 2011, Johannes Kepler was at the time the heaviest payload ever launched by the European Space Agency and carried 7000 kg of cargo to the ISS. The first launch attempt on 15 February 2011 had been halted during the final countdown at four minutes from lift off due to an erroneous signal from one of the rocket's fuel tanks.

On 29 April 2011, the engines of the ATV were used to rotate the ISS in order for a Russian Progress supply craft to dock with the station.

Due to the delayed launch of STS-134 the mission of Johannes Kepler was extended, and it undocked from the ISS on 20 June 2011. It deorbited a day later on 21 June 2011.

Edoardo Amaldi

thumb|ATV-3 Edoardo Amaldi approaches ISS on the dark side of the Earth with thrusters firing, 2012

The third ATV vehicle arrived in French Guiana in late August 2011 and was launched on 23 March 2012. It docked with the International Space Station at 2231 GMT on 28 March 2012.

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein ATV was the heaviest spacecraft launched by Ariane at the time and lifted off at 21:52:11 GMT on 5 June 2013. It docked with the ISS on 15 June 2013 at 14:07 GMT.

Georges Lemaître

Named after the Belgian astronomer Georges Lemaître. The spacecraft launched during the night of 29 July (23:44 GMT, 20:44 local time, 30 July 01:44 CEST), 2014, on a mission to supply the International Space Station (ISS) with propellant, water, air, and dry cargo, and an artwork by artist Katie Paterson. It docked with the ISS on 12 August at 13:30 GMT. Georges Lemaître had a total mass of almost , a mass that exceeded that of all previously launched ATVs. This also made it the heaviest spacecraft ever launched by an Ariane rocket.

ATV Control Centre

ATV missions were monitored and controlled from the ATV Control Centre (ATV-CC), located at the Toulouse Space Centre (CST) in Toulouse, France. The ATV-CC was responsible for the planning and the issuing of commands for the orbital maneuvers and mission tasks of each ATV, from the moment of separation from its launch vehicle, until it burns up in the Earth's atmosphere. The ATV-CC has a direct communication line with the Columbus Control Center (Col-CC) in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. Col-CC provides ATV-CC with access to both the NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System and the European Artemis communication networks in order to communicate with both the ATV and the ISS. The ATV-CC coordinated its actions with NASA's Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center (MCC-H) in Houston and the Russian FKA Mission Control Center (TsUP or MCC-M) in Moscow, as well as the ATV launch site at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana.

Basis for European Service Module

thumb|Orion spacecraft including the ATV derived service module

In May 2011 the ESA director general announced a possible collaboration with NASA to work on a successor to the ATV. Later that year, a proposal to utilise an ATV derived service module for NASA's Orion capsule was revealed. This service module would be provided as barter for the ESA's 8% share of the operating expense of the ISS, which had been fulfilled up to 2017 by the five ATVs. Developing a service module for Orion would cover the ESA's share of ISS operation up to 2020.