The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is a European cargo supply vehicle to be
used for the Interrnational Space Station (ISS). It
is launched by the
Ariane-5 Rocket from Kourou in French Guinea.
The European Automated Transfer Vehicle is a new generation of unpiloted cargo
carriers designed to supply the International Space Station with liquid and dry
cargo as well as gases.
The first ATV is scheduled to be launched to the ISS in 2003. The European
Space Agency (ESA) is to launch 9 Ariane-5's between 2003 and 2014 carrying
Each 20 tonne ATV will be placed in 300 km, 51.6 degrees orbit and will then
maneouvre to rendezvous and dock with the ISS. The ATV will provide
unpressurized cargo, including propellant and cargo stored in its pressurized
compartment including payloads and experiments.
The ATV will also provide an orbital reboosting capabilty for the ISS and will
later be filled with trash and waste which will be disposed of during a
controlled, destructive re-entry.
The ATV is more than 32 feet long and almost 15 feet in diameter. It has a dry
weight of about 23,000 pounds. It docks automatically with the station, though
station crew members can take charge of the process if difficulties arise.
It can carry more than 16,800 pounds of cargo. It can take to the station as
much as 12,000 pounds of dry cargo, almost 1,850 pounds of water, as much as 220
pounds of gases, and up to 1,890 pounds of propellant for the station.
Additionally, tanks for its own engines can hold more than 10,000 pounds of
propellant for its own four main engines and 28 attitude control thrusters. The
ATV's main engines can reboost the station, and its thrusters can provide
station attitude control.
Once its standard racks are emptied (it can accommodate eight of them) and other
dry cargo is transferred from its 1,685-cubic-foot pressurized cargo area and
liquids and gases are moved into station tanks, the ATV becomes a garbage
container. It can load more than 13,800 pounds of dry and liquid wastes, which
with the spacecraft are incinerated on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
Plans call for at least seven ATVs to be built to support the station.
Did you know?
* ATV has a larger ater cargo capacity than the Russian Progress cargo
* The Kourou launch site is about 5 degrees north of the Equator,
giving the Ariane almost full advantage of the Earth's rotation.
Automated Transfer Vehicle
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