Georges Lemaître ATV-5 Mission - cnes- · PDF fileInformation package ATV-5 7 ATV-5 Cargo > Fuel for the ATV: 2,118 kg / Fuel for the ISS tanks: 860 kg > Water: 848 kg...

ATV-CCINFORMATION PACKAGE

The European cargo control centre

Georges Lemaître ATV-5 Mission

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Information package ATV-5 3

1. ATV-5 Georges LemaîtreFifth and last European cargo ship for the ISS A constantly-evolving control centreCARGO: ATV-5 sets a new record

2. The ATV Control Centre, hub of operationsThe control centresARTEMIS and TDRS, essential relay satellites for the ATVCoordinating ground support facilities

3. Operations carried out at the ATV-CC The different phases

• From launch to injection• Phasing• Rendezvous and docking• An ISS module• ATV thrusters boost the ISS• Separation and controlled re-entry into the atmopshere

4. ATV-5 trialling tomorrow’s space hardwareATV-5 Georges Lemaître will test two new types of sensor for ESAHigh-risk fly-under

5. Mission analysisSpace mechanics, an area of CNES expertiseATV-5 will shed light on the ISS’s future re-entry

6. Control centre organisation

7. ATV-CC highlightsA mission-by-mission synopsis

8. CNES leaves its mark on human spaceflightThe ATV’s legacyTeam spirit

CNES, the French space agency

Contacts


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ATV-4 Albert Einstein approaching the

International Space Station, just before docking on 15

June 2013.


Europe’s fifth Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), named Georges Lemaître after the Belgian physicist behind the Big Bang theory, is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) in the summer of 2014. The five ATVs are part of ESA’s contribution to ISS operating costs.

Like the previous four ATVs, it will resupply the ISS with food, water, oxygen, fuel, spare parts and scientific equipment. During its six months in space, ATV-5 will regularly raise the ISS orbit to compensate for the station’s gradual decrease in altitude due to atmospheric drag. Its thrusters can also correct the ISS’s attitude to avoid orbiting debris or facilitate the docking of visiting spacecraft.

The ATV is one of the most complex vehicles developed by ESA not only because of its fully automated docking with the ISS, but also because of its exceptional size and the severe safety constraints applied to human spaceflight.

A constantly-evolving control centre On 16 December 1998, the ESA Ministerial Council assigned the development and operation of the ATV Control Centre to CNES because of the French space agency’s competence in the field of human spaceflight and satellite operations. The ATV-CC, as it is commonly known, is located on the premises of the Toulouse Space Centre. Interfacing with the Moscow and Houston Mission Control Centres, it is responsible for conducting ATV operations and coordinating all the ground support facilities needed.

For this last mission to the ISS, ATV-CC engineers have some specific missions to add to their routine tasks. ATV-5 will test ESA’s new sensors, the first step towards a rendezvous with an uncooperative target such as debris or an asteroid. The other main difference lies in the re-entry conditions, designed to pave the way for ISS deorbiting operations in the future.

ATV-5 Georges Lemaître, fifth and last European cargo ship for the ISS

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ATV-5 at the Guiana Space Centre before

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Weighing in at 20,235 kg, ATV Georges Lemaître carries the heaviest ATV shipment so far

Food, clothing, tools

Almost all the bays were loaded with dry

cargo in March 2014. Four racks near the

main hatch will remain empty until a few

days prior to launch. The ATV is carrying 14

bags of freight for ESA and 83 for NASA.

ATV-5’s dry cargo, including onboard equip-

ment, weighs 2,647 kg.

Italian spring water

The ATV freighter is also carrying 848.3 kg

of “Russian” water for orbital use. There are

two types of drinking water on the Interna-

tional Space Station because the Russians

and Americans add different disinfecting

agents (silver or iodine ions respectively) to

prevent the spread of bacteria. For the first

time, the three ATV water tanks have been

filled to the brim for the launch. The ATV fills

the tanks with water from a spring near Tu-

rin, Italy, with a high natural mineral content.

The cargo ship will also be delivering the

Fluids Control Pump Assembly (FCPA), a cri-

tical component of the system that recycles

urine into drinking water, vital to the astro-

nauts’ daily life.

Gas, a breath of fresh air

ATV-5 Georges Lemaître can transport dif-

ferent types of gas, namely oxygen, air and

nitrogen. Oxygen is used to increase pres-

sure in the station, while air (21% of which

is oxygen) is usually for rapid pressurisation

following extra-vehicular activity. ATV-5’s

three tanks have all been filled, one with

33.33 kg of air and the remaining two with

66.67 kg of oxygen.

Nearly 3 tonnes of fuel

One of the ATV’s key missions is fuel resup-

ply. Of all the ISS supply ships, the Automa-

ted Transfer Vehicle carries the most fuel.

This year, of the nearly three tonnes flown

on board, 860 kg will be transferred to the

Russian segment’s fuel tanks. It will allow

the ISS to perform its own attitude control

manoeuvres when there is no docked space-

craft to provide thrust. ATV-5 will be keeping

2,218 kg for its own approach manoeuvres

and for correcting the ISS’s attitude and

raising its orbit once docked. The ATV will

also need fuel after separation for deorbiting

boosts.

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CARGO: ATV-5 sets a new record


ATV-5 Cargo

> Fuel for the ATV: 2,118 kg / Fuel for the ISS tanks: 860 kg

> Water: 848 kg

> Air and oxygen: 100 kg

TOTALCARGO6,574 Kg

DRY CARGO2,647 Kg

LIQUIDCARGO3,926 kg

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During operations to unload the cargo from

ATV-4 in 2013.

Mission synopsis ATV1 ATV2 ATV3 ATV4 ATV5

Total launch mass 19,011 kg 19,709 kg 19,726 kg 19,837 kg 20,235 kg

Fuel for the ISS 860 kg 860 kg 860 kg 860 kg 860 kg

Dry cargo 1 ,150 kg 1,605 kg 2,200 kg 2,489 kg 2,647 kg

Water 284 kg 0 kg 284 kg 564 kg 848,3 kg

Gas 20 kg 100 kg 100 kg 100 kg 100 kg

Waste loaded for the return trip 1,094 kg 1,300 kg 1,340 kg 2,260 kg ?

Total re-entry mass 13,437 kg 13,808 kg 14,058 kg 16,477 kg ?


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The ATV Control Centre in Toulouse.


The ATV Control Centre, hub of operations

The ATV-CC, located in ToulouseThe ATV-CC is in charge of conducting ATV operations and coordinating the necessary ground support facilities. Specifically developed for ATV operations, the nominal control centre, as well as the emergency centre and a test platform, conduct the ATV mission operations.

The Houston mission control centre (MCC-H)This operates the American part of the International Space Station. It is the supreme authority for all operations linked to the ISS. If need be, for example in the case of a hurricane, it may be replaced by an emergency centre located in Huntsville, Alabama.

The Moscow mission control centre (MCC-M)This operates the Russian service module to which the ATV will be docking, and is thereforethe main contact point during ATV operations. It also handles the Station’s reboosting phases.

The crew’s role On board the ISS, the crew prepares the station to receive the transfer vehicle, oversees the rendezvous and the docking operations (intervenes if necessary to interrupt them or cancel the approach), and finally transfers the ATV cargo into the station, and the station waste into the ATV on its return.

Luca Parmitano and Alexander Misurkin monitor the approach and docking phases of ATV-4 Albert Einstein from the Zvezda module.

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Top left: the Control Centre for the American

part of the ISS, in Houston.

Top right: the TSOUP Control Centre in

Moscow.

Bottom left: the Redu centre in Belgium.

Bottom right: the Jupiter Room at the Guiana Space Centre

- The Guiana Space Centre (Kourou), launch site for the Ariane launcher which is carrying the ATV on board.

As well as the usual activities of maintaining the various control centre tools in operating condition (tracking and steering the cargo vehicle, calculating manoeuvres and trajectories, flight plan management), one of the ATV-CC’s tasks is to ensure consistency in the entire ground support system (basically reservation of resources and their operational coordination with the partners).

Coordinating ground support facilities

The ATV-CC is part of an international ground segment which involves many partners:

- NASA with the Houston control centre which implements the American ground support facility (in particular the TDRS tracking systems),

- The Russian space agency with the TSOUp control centre (Moscow),

- ESA with the European network control centre at DLR in Germany and the ARTEMIS satellite piloted from Belgiumin Redu.


ARTEMIS and TDRS, essential relay satellites for the ATV

In theory, the ATV does not transmit any

data directly to Earth. The relay satellites

ARTEMIS and TDRS are the sole links

between the ATV and its control centre.

The ability to relay data from one satellite

to another, situated in geostationary orbit,

frees up several ground stations.

In case of a major breakdown on board, an

emergency system, based at three ground

stations, would provide the minimum

communication necessary to halt the mission

under normal conditions.

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3. Operations carried out at the ATV-CCThe operations carried out from the ATV control centre consist of several phases throughout the mission.

1. From launch to injectionThe ATV mission begins with the launch of the cargo vehicle on board an Ariane 5 ES from the Kourou Spaceport. An elliptical orbit of 137 km at its perigee and 260 km at its apogee is reached after the first firing of the storable propellant stage, for a little less than 8 minutes. Following a waiting time of 48 minutes (ballistic phase), the second firing is triggered to reach a circular orbit at an altitude of 260 km. At the final stage, ATV separation is performed on completion of the steering manoeuvres. After one and a quarter hours in flight, a third 15-second firing is triggered, causing the storable propellant stage and the equipment bay to fall into the Pacific ocean. The ATV solar panels are deployed and the first communications between the Control Centre and the ATV are established.

2. PhasingCompared to a standard satellite positioning, the difficulty of the ATV mission lies in the fact that the rendezvous point, the Station, is not fixed but moving, which involves particularly carefulphasing with the ISS. These phasing operations bring the ATV close to the Station prior to the final phase: the rendezvous. If necessary, the ATV can be temporarily put on hold on a parking orbit from among the 4 positions planned at 1,000 or 2,000 km in front of or behind theStation.

3. Rendezvous and dockingThe last few metres separating the ATV from the Station are continuously closely monitored by the Control Centre, firstly with a GPS system, then through the combined use of two highly accurate measuring systems.

The first comprises two videometers, “the eyes of the ATV”, enabling it to dock with a precision of within one centimeter.

These videometers are supplemented by telegoniometers sending 10,000 laser pulses per second to the Station.

These are delicate manoeuvres: the ATV and the Station are moving at a speed of 28,000 km/hour. They are monitored by the Toulouse Control Centre and the Station crew, who can interrupt the approach at any time.

If the rendezvous is interrupted, the ATV is placed in a safe orbit in relation to the ISS. Docking is attempted again two days later.

4. A Station module Once docked, that is to say connected at a mechanical, computer, electrical and hydraulic level, the ATV becomes a completely separate module to the Station. If, however, due to exceptional circumstances, another space freighter had to dock on the port used by the ATV, the ATV could be temporarily unmoored, sent to a waiting position, and resume its place when it again becomes free.

5. ATV thrusters boost the ISSIn the course of its mission, the cargo transportation vehicle is regularly used to correct the orbit of the Station. It can also be put to use during manoeuvres to avoid space debris or correct the attitude of the Station to facilitate rendezvous with other supply modules.

6. Undocking and controlled re-entry into the atmosphere Once it has carried out its mission, the ATV isguided by the Control Centre towards its final destination, an uninhabited area in the South Pacific, above which it breaks up in the atmosphere. The re-entry takes place less than 48 hours after leaving the Station, along a very steep angle, so as to limit the scattering of debris which have not been burnt away in the atmosphere. In the course of this last trip, the ATV will have circled the Earth several times.


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ATV-5 carries three cameras and a lidar which can all be seen on the above photo, taken during the vehicle’s integration.


ATV-5 trialling tomorrow’s space hardwareATV-5 Georges Lemaître will test two new types of sensor for ESA.

This fifth ATV is set to test out two new European sensors during the ATV’s journey through space. One is a lidar system (the light equivalent of radar) and the other a set of three cameras operating in the visible and infrared spectra. This new equipment will record important data during the approach phase, including position, velocity and attitude. The ATV-CC will be kept even busier than usual due to the additional operations required to implement these sensors.

The control centre also has to take into account numerous constraints for the trial, including Sun glare, orientation of the solar arrays and new ground control procedures. The Flight Directors will have to add this extra procedure into the nominal rendezvous sequence.

High-risk fly-underThe data recorded during ATV-5’s final approach will be used to improve the guidance, navigation and control systems of new European spacecraft designed to rendezvous with an uncooperative target such as orbiting debris or an asteroid.

To test this equipment, three and a half days prior to docking, ATV-CC engineers will attempt an approach then fly the ATV under the ISS. The fly-under is a complicated operation requiring all the Toulouse engineers’ experience and know-how. During the fly-under, they will switch on the sensor systems and recorder, then switch everything off when manoeuvres are complete. Eighty-four hours later the operators will return the freighter to the traditional rendezvous location to initiate docking procedures.

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For this test, the ATV-CC will send the ATV under the ISS three and a half days before docking.


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Nearly twenty expert software systems take

charge of the ATV during operations.


Mission analysis

> calculating the time of launch and defining rendezvous opportunities,

> analysing manoeuvres and optimising trajectories (phasing, deorbiting and re-entry),

> defining the mission’s attitude profile,> assessing the performances of orbit

restitution and relative navigation in relation to the ISS,

> calculating orbital events, in particular the communication periods via Russian tracking stations and the ARTEMIS and TDRS satellites, and producing synthesis chronograms.

Mission analysis is a fundamental activity in the preparation stages of the mission.

The mission analysis activities conducted by the ATV-CC concern the mission’s optimisation. On the one hand, it must comply with certain constraints formu-lated by the vehicle’s designer and the station partners (security, maximum manoeuvre value, sensor glare, etc.) and, on the other hand, minimise propel-lant consumption. Several technical themes are researched in particular in this context:

Space mechanics, an area of CNES expertise

Since the late 1990s, and following on

from the work conducted on the Hermès

shuttle project as well as in the framework

of the Franco-Russian missions on the Mir

station, the CNES space mechanics teams

have taken charge of the generic mission

analysis (common to all flights) and specific

mission analysis (for a given flight) of the

ATV programme. These studies are still

going on to take feedback into account and

also in order to be able to respond quickly to

unexpected situations. This was the case just

before the launch of the Jules Verne ATV-1,

where initially unplanned strategies had to

be invented in order to position it in a parking

orbit while waiting for an optimal rendezvous

opportunity with the ISS to present itself.

These same teams defined the FDS (Flight

Dynamics System) within the Toulouse

control centre. Nearly twenty expert software

systems take charge of the ATV during

operations, where the role of the FDS is not

simply limited to monitoring the vehicle! In

fact, the ATV is only actually autonomous

about 30 kilometres from the ISS. By way of

comparison, on a trip from Toulouse to Paris,

the ATV

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Re-entry will be observed by the astronauts from the

Station’s cupola.

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would only be autonomous when it arrived at

the Porte d’Orléans! Before it arrives at that

point, it is the control centre which commands

the ATV’s movements. For example, GPS

measurements are mostly processed on the

ground, and during the first flight, around

sixty orbital correction manœuvres had to be

calculated and optimised by the FDS.

To carry out this work, around fifteen people,

divided into three teams, work in shifts 24/7

until the end of the mission, since to guarantee

a return to Earth without risk to populations,

it is again the FDS team which calculates the

de-orbit manoeuvres, which will be uploaded

from the ground.


ATV-5 will be subject to specific re-entry

conditions in order to provide insight on the

ISS’s future atmospheric re-entry, currently

scheduled for 2024. The ATV is the biggest

vessel to visit the ISS and the closest in shape.

NASA therefore asked ATV-CC engineers to

ensure that the ATV’s re-entry is similar to

that planned for the ISS, i.e. re-entering the

atmosphere at a shallower angle than usual.

This is because the ISS will be deorbited using

the small engines of Russia’s “Progress”

vessels. The ATV trajectory will obviously be

calculated to avoid populated areas as well as

air and maritime traffic, in keeping with the

French law on space operations.

Shallow re-entry, a world firstIn the past, ATVs have always been sent into a

steep re-entry. The ATV-CC will be controlling

a shallow re-entry for the first time. This new

strategy will allow US partners to validate

certain hypotheses on ISS re-entry. To collect

all the information needed, the re-entry will

be recorded by the astronauts aboard

the ISS and observed from Earth by the

Awarua telemetry station and its telescope

in New Zealand.

The ATV-CC will also obtain data never

before recorded because Airbus Space &

Defence has specifically fitted additional

temperature sensors to ATV-5 for this last

flight. The space freighter will also carry

three high-precision instruments to analyse

parameters such as position, velocity and

pressure as the spacecraft breaks up. These

are NASA’s Re-entry Break-up Recorder

(REBR), ESA’s Break-Up Camera (BUC) and

the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s

i-BALL. This is the first time such a set of

recording instruments has been employed.

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ATV-4’s atmospheric re-entry was already observed from the ISS.

ATV-5 will shed light on the ISS’s future re-entry


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For the entire ATV mission (up to 6 months), the Flight Control Team tracksthe European cargo vessel 24/7.

During the key phases (rendezvous, undocking, etc.) there are around fifty people in the control room. Within the ATV-CC, the roles are shared out as follows:

A. In the left-hand section, the Flight Dynamics control room. Here, the space mechanics engineers carry out orbit determination calculations necessary for the ATV manœuvres.

B. In the right-hand section, the vehicle experts room (Engineering Support Room). Astrium and ESA specialists provide their support andindepth knowledge of the cargo vessel, in order to aid decision-making throughout the mission. A safety specialist for the Station crew is also present.

C. In the centre, the main control room iswhere the operational teams work.

Row 1. In the foreground, around the U-shaped table are the vehicle teams responsible for monitoring the ATV’s behaviour.The Spacecraft Commander is in charge of sending remote commands to the ATV.

Row 2. Here the people in charge of the mission take their places: the ESA Mission Director beside the CNES Flight Directors, the ATV Interface Officer and the OPS Manager, in charge of coordinating operations.

Row 3. The Ground Controllers ensure all the ground support facilities involved in controlling the ATV are working properly and provide the interface with the NASA teams in Houston and the TSOUP control centre in Moscow, as well as the Guiana Space Centre at the time of launch.

Row 4. During the key phases of the mission, representatives from NASA and TSOUP sit in the first row in the room.

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Control centre organisation


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HISTORY ATV-1 ATV-2 ATV-3 ATV-4

Launch 09-March-08 16-Feb-11 23-March-12 05-June-13

Phasing with the ISS (days) 25 8 5 10

Docking 03-April-08 24-Feb-11 25-March-12 15-June-13

Docked phase Reboosts 4 6 9 6

Debris avoidance manœuvres

1 1 0 0

Raising the orbit (km) 20 44 28,7 10

Attitude control 7 6 6 1

Separation 05-Sept-08 20-June-11 28-Sept-12 28-Oct-13

Deorbiting andre-entry 29-Sept-08 21-June-11 03-Oct-12 02-Nov-13


ATV-1 Jules VerneOn 9 Mars 2008, a dedicated version of Ariane 5 orbited ATV Jules Verne, the first in a series of five. The ATV-CC docked it with the International Space Station after four weeks of approach manœuvres and tests. Prior to ATV-1, only Russia had managed a partly automated docking procedure in space. The cargo vessel separated five months later. The ATV-CC thus successfully managed a first in the history of the ISS. Its teams have proven their responsiveness and adaptability in order to optimise these operations.

The spacecraft’s controlled atmospheric re-entry confirmed the success of this maiden ATV flight. The event was observed andrelayed by two US Air Force aircraft and the ISS astronauts at the same time.

ATV-2 Johannes KeplerFor ATV-2, CNES geared the ATV Control Centre to new uses. The facilities also need to be constantly upgraded to meet the requirements of NASA and Russian federal space agency Roskosmos. Benefitting from the experience acquired during the first ATV mission, CNES and ESA decided to set up a training centre in 2009 specifically for engineers controlling the space freighter. The ATV-CC Training Academy (ATAC) was thus created.

On 15 February 2011, ATV-2 Johannes Kepler lifted off from French Guiana, reaching the ISS eight days later. The ISS hosted several visiting spacecraft during the ATV’s docked phase, requiring several boosts to position the station optimally in order to receive them. These precise attitude manoeuvres were not part of the initial specifications but, after careful examination, the ATV-CC agreed to conduct these operations, testifying not only to the success of the ATV project but also to the competence of the ATV-CC teams in Toulouse.

ATV-3 Edoardo AmaldiThe launch pace was then stepped up, just one year separating the launches of ATV-2 and ATV-3. The training and mission preparation campaigns followed suit. On 23 March 2012, it was ATV-3’s turn, docking within just six days of launch. Operator activities also increased. This third ATV raised the ISS nine times, placing it in its highest orbit yet, 427 kilometres above Earth.

ATV-4 Albert EinsteinOn 5 June 2013, Ariane 5 lofted ATV-4 Albert Einstein into space for its rendezvous with the ISS. At that period, the beta angle—i.e. the Sun’s angle of incidence with respect to the orbital plane—was 70°, which meant that the ATV was constantly illuminated. The ATV- CC teams therefore had to modify the whole sequence of activities from injection to docking. On 15 June, ATV-CC operators attained record precision for the rendezvous and docking. The ATV’s probe was captured by the ISS Zvezda docking module without the slightest contact, directly and gently. This rendezvous stands out in ATV history, remaining an unrivalled achievement to this day.

ATV-5 Georges LemaîtreThe last freighter in the series is planned for launch in the summer of 2014. ATV-5 Georges Lemaître will be testing out two new types of European sensor as it approaches the ISS. To test this new hardware, three and a half days prior to docking, ATV-CC engineers will perform an approach then fly the ATV under the ISS. Eighty-four hours later, the freighter will return to the traditional rendezvous location. At the end of the mission, the ATV-CC will handle another novel event, as its operators are even now working on the special re-entry conditions that await this spacecraft. As the ATV is the biggest spacecraft to visit the ISS, it will be used to shed light on the space station’s future re-entry.

ATV-CC highlightsFrom the first development steps through 17 years and five ATVs, the ATV Control Centre in Toulouse has built up a wealth of experience in human spaceflight operations. Let us look back over the ATV-CC’s highlights.


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In order to lighten the ISS crew’s workload when

unloading the ATV, the teams at the ATV-CC have come up with some novel

solutions.


CNES leaves its mark on human spaceflight

Over 17 years and five ATVs, the Toulouse control centre has built up a wealth of experience. With each mission, its teams have proved their adaptability and responsiveness, providing the ISS with quality service. ESA and CNES have gained the respect of both American and Russian teams. With the ATV and ATV-CC, Europe has stepped squarely into the arena of human spaceflight.

Complicated manœuvresThe mission’s US partners, for example, have asked the ATV-CC to adjust the International Space Station’s attitude, placing it in positions that had not previously been planned. The ATV has already helped the ISS receive incoming spacecraft such as Progress, Soyuz, Cygnus and Dragon. The operations required to take these new attitude parameters into account had to be conceived from scratch. From an operational standpoint, these manoeuvres are complicated because the station is no longer lying along its normal flight axis, which can cause transmission losses. To overcome this problem, ATV-CC engineers have to take into consideration coverage by the TDRS and ARTEMIS relay satellites, working out when communication is likely to be lost and planning when transmission difficulties will be least problematic for the other operations.

Relieving the ISS crewIn order to lighten the ISS crew’s workload when unloading the ATV, the ATV-CC teams have had to come up with novel solutions, especially when transferring oxygen, which is a particularly delicate operation that can jeopardise ISS safety. The ISS astronauts have been relieved of some of the monitoring operations, which are now conducted directly by the ground segment. The ATV-CC spacecraft experts had to make numerous calculations to measure the risks and define the quantity of oxygen able to be transferred in one go, for example, without undermining safety.

It was also decided to monitor temperatures to guard against the risk of condensation, the goal being to reduce to a minimum the astronauts’ presence for handling and surveillance inside the ATV. Being attached to a crewed space station, the ATV is required to meet the highest possible crew safety criteria. This includes considering all eventualities, however improbable. Operations are aimed at making a mission as impervious to unplanned events as possible, so they include finding alternative rendezvous solutions or increasing backup possibilities for operations conducted once the ATV is safely docked, for example.

The ATV-CC teams’ experience has enabled them to improve the cargo ship’s configuration so as to optimise operations. The ATV-CC engineers

have improved the cargo ship’s configuration.

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The ATV’s legacy

The duration, resources involved and technical complexity of the Automated Transfer Vehicle are unmatched in the history of the European space programme. The lessons learnt from the development and operation of these space freighters have already enabled CNES to accumulate a huge pool of knowledge. ESA and CNES are looking into ways of exploiting this expertise and these technologies for future space applications.

The success of the ATV is underpinned by nearly 20 years of international partnership. This invaluable experience, characterised by close cooperation between all the teams and scientific cultures, paves the way for future joint projects in the field of crewed space exploration.

Team spirit

There is nothing like a constant stream of challenges to build up a strong sense of teamwork. participants in this project have a passionate interest in their work, which they often say is the best experience of their career.

There is a very real sense of cooperation between all the teams in the ATV project. With such short deadlines, team spirit is the key to the project’s success.

Throughout its mission, the spacecraft is monitored and controlled by the ATV Control Centre (ATV-CC), whose teams work day and night in coordination with the other control centres in Russia and the United States. The least command is made with the full agreement of ISS partners. Three space agencies with three different work cultures: the trilateral nature of this complex space freighter compels participants to be open-minded. The ATV project has led to the development of joint methods to design, build and control this spacecraft.

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Information package ATV-5 27Dossier d’information ATV-5 27

Founded in 1961, the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) is the government agency responsible for shaping and implementing France’s space policy in Europe. It designs and launches satellites, invents the space systems of tomorrow and fosters the emergence of new services of practical use in daily life. CNES conceives and executes large-scale space programmes, launch vehicles and satellites, which it commissions industry to manufacture. It also works closely with scientific partners and is involved in many international cooperation programmes. France, represented by CNES, is the largest contributor to the European Space Agency (ESA), tasked by its 20 member states to conduct Europe’s space policy.

Four centres of excellenceCNES employs close to 2,500 people, who are passionate about space and the infinite array of highly innovative and beneficial applications it offers.

Located in the Midi-Pyrénées region since 1968, the Toulouse Space Centre (CST) is CNES’s largest technical and operational facility. Its engineers study, design, develop, produce, position, control and exploit orbital systems, satellites and instruments.

At Paris Daumesnil, the Launch Vehicles directorate (DLA) has guided and shaped the destiny of the Ariane launcher family for over 40 years. Its specialists are more involved than ever in the future of Europe’s launcher, working as part of an integrated team with ESA.

In French Guiana, the teams at the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) coordinate launch activities for Europe’s range of launch vehicles. Ideally situated near the equator, Europe’s spaceport is a major asset for the European space program.

At Paris Les Halles, the teams at Head Office are responsible for developing French and European space policy and conducting CNES programmes.

Five areas of involvement CNES has five areas of focus, which cover all the expertise needed to define and implement space policy:

Ariane: independent access to space is an issue of sovereignty and is guaranteed by Europe’s range of launch vehicles.

Sciences: space exploration is seeking answers to humanity’s fundamental questions about the origins of the solar system, galaxies and life.

Observation: Earth is under the constant watch of satellites, which observe and study its atmosphere and return valuable data for meteorology, oceanography, altimetry and other fields.

Telecommunications: satellites play an irreplaceable role in high-speed telecoms, location, environmental data collection and search & rescue.

Defence: very high-resolution optical observation, eavesdropping, highly secure telecommunications and space-based surveillance contribute to peace and security for citizens.

CNES and employmentAs it invents the space systems of tomorrow, CNES is a major player in technological innovation, economic development and industrial policy in France. Some 80% of its budget is invested back into French companies, and 40% of Europe’s space industry is located in France. In metropolitan France, space programmes generate 16,000 jobs, while in French Guiana, space accounts for 9,000 direct and indirect jobs, or 15% of local employment. With €20 of economic benefits for every €1 invested, space innovation has a considerable leverage effect for the economy, industry, research, public policy and society as a whole.

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Contacts CNES

Headquarters2 place Maurice Quentin75039 Cedex 01

Launchers Directorate 52 rue Jacques Hillairet75612 Paris Cedex

Toulouse Space Center18 avenue Edouard Belin31401 Toulouse Cedex 9

Guiana Space PortBP 726 – 97387 Kourou CedexFrench Guiana

Public information: http://www.cnes.fr/web/CNES-en/475-contact.php

Press information:http://www.cnes.fr/[email protected]

ATV-CC blog: www.cnes.fr/atv

July 2014

www.cnes.fr

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