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About Education What we do & why we do it Browse lessons by ISS Education Fund
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ATV: a very special delivery - Lesson notes
| | | | 1 - Controlling a collision
| The ATV will dock with the Station's Zvezda Service Module. It will carry a 7.4 tonne payload that includes water, oxygen and propellant. Four tonnes of the propellant will be used to reboost the Station at regular intervals; another 860 kg will be transferred to the Station for attitude and orbit control. ATV will be a separate transfer vehicle with avionics and propulsion capability. Launched by Ariane-5E, it will resemble a regular satellite payload protected by Ariane's fairing. Equipped with a set of engines and with solar panels, it will include a separate pressurised payload container. Controlled from the ATV Control Centre in Europe, its docking manoeuvres will be coordinated with the Space Station Control Center at Houston and with the Russian control centre near Moscow.
Credits: ESA-D. Ducros | |  |  | |
| | | | 2 - The ATV: “Where am I?”
| Galileo’s new technology will revolutionise our transport systems, increasing safety and improving efficiency; this will make for better quality of life and less pollution in our cities. Galileo will also bring benefits in other aspects of everyday life, with precision farming raising yields, improved information for emergency services speeding up response times, and more reliable and accurate time signals underpinning our most vital computer and communications networks.
Credits: ESA- J.Huart | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | 3 - Rendezvous in space
| | | | 4 - How far to docking, Sir?
| Cooperation between Europe and Russia on the integration of the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) with the International Space Station lasted more than a decade and culminated with a flawless docking of the first European cargo craft to the station’s Zvezda Service Module on 3 April 2008.
All Russian systems aboard the ATV (the Refueling System, Docking System, Equipment Control System, and KURS) demonstrated a stunning level of performance at all respective phases of the mission.
All major joint tasks, such as delivery of dry cargo to the ISS, water transfer, re-pressurization with oxygen, ISS re-boost with ATV thrusters, attitude control, and a debris avoidance manoeuvre, were fulfilled without a hitch.
The giant freighter destroyed itself in a controlled burn-up over the southern Pacific on 29 September 2009.
It is currently planned to launch an ATV every 17 months as part of ESA's ISS membership agreement to haul cargo, propellant, water and oxygen to the space station, and also to provide propulsion capacity at the station.
The ATV is 9.794m long, weighs 19.357 tonnes and has a total cargo capacity of 7.667 tonnes.
Credits: NASA | | | | |
| | | | 5 - Re-boosting – why such a low orbit?
| Looking through the Earth's atmosphere from on board the International Space Station (ISS) - this image was taken by ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter during his long-duration stay on the Station.
Credits: ESA - Thomas Reiter | | | | |
| | | | 6. Maintaining orbital velocity
| Backdropped by the blackness of space, the International Space Station is seen from Space Shuttle Atlantis as the two spacecraft begin their relative separation. Earlier the STS-122 and Expedition 16 crews concluded almost nine days of cooperative work onboard the shuttle and station. Undocking of the two spacecraft occurred at 10:24 CET (09:24 UT) on 18 February 2008.
Credits: NASA | | | | |
| | | | 7. Air resistance upon re-entry
| | | | Last update: 18 April 2012 | |
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