Andrew Yee[_1_]
April 1st 08, 04:26 AM
ESA News
http://www.esa.int
31 March 2008
Impressive dress-rehearsal for Jules Verne ATV
Jules Verne ATV today approached the International Space Station to within
11 m of the docking port on the Russian Zvezda module. The approach was part
of a second ATV demonstration day which clears the way for the first
rendezvous and docking attempt on 3 April.
"I'm known for my understatements, but the only word that comes to mind
about today is impressive," said John Ellwood, ESA's ATV Project Manager.
"It was impressive to see how Jules Verne, the staff at the ATV Control
Centre, the control centres in Moscow and Houston pulled together today. It
was a perfect dress-rehearsal for Thursday."
Today's manoeuvres included the first demonstration of the critical optical
navigation system, using the European-developed Videometer technology. It
was confirmed that ATV can use this system to autonomously navigate to
within 11 m of the ISS.
"This demonstration day confirmes the performance of the vehicle is even
better than we had hoped for," said Nicolas Chamussy, Astrium ATV Project
Manager. "This is a world premier for automated rendezvous using optical
sensors, following the world's first demonstration of relative GPS
navigation between Jules Verne and the Station performed on Saturday."
"Today was an important success for the Toulouse control centre to
orchestrate a human-rated mission with the Station and it is a main step
which is very promising for the docking attempt on Thursday," added Lionel
Baize, ATV-CC Project Manager for the French space agency, CNES. "It is an
incredible challenge to have three control centres working together and to
interact live with the ISS crew."
Mission controllers at the ATV Control Centre (ATV-CC) in Toulouse, France,
also confirmed they could issue very specific commands to Jules Verne,
including Hold Retreat and Resume. These commands may have to be issued if
any unforeseen problems occur in the ATV's automatic guidance system.
Today's demonstration also included the first active participation of the
ISS crew in the mission. Once ATV had reached the 11-metre stand-off point,
the astronauts were instructed to issue a Retreat command bringing Jules
Verne back to the 19-metre point. The crew then issued an Escape command,
which automatically took Jules Verne to a safe location away from the ISS.
The close approach to the ISS presented the ATV team with an opportunity to
inspect some thermal blankets on the exterior of the spacecraft that had
become degraded. "These were in exactly the positions that our thermal
analysis had predicted. At the moment we do not envisage that this will have
any impact on Thursday's planned first docking attempt," said John Ellwood,
ESA's ATV Project Manager. "We have addressed with our ISS partners the
increase in power we might need to maintain the temperatures and we foresee
no problems."
Data collected during Demonstration Day 2 will be made available to ISS
managers for their go-ahead to proceed with a first docking attempt on
Thursday. Jules Verne ATV is scheduled to dock with ISS at 16:41 CEST (14:41
UT) on 3 April.
[NOTE: Images and weblinks supporting this release are available at
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMSGE5QGEF_index_1.html ]
http://www.esa.int
31 March 2008
Impressive dress-rehearsal for Jules Verne ATV
Jules Verne ATV today approached the International Space Station to within
11 m of the docking port on the Russian Zvezda module. The approach was part
of a second ATV demonstration day which clears the way for the first
rendezvous and docking attempt on 3 April.
"I'm known for my understatements, but the only word that comes to mind
about today is impressive," said John Ellwood, ESA's ATV Project Manager.
"It was impressive to see how Jules Verne, the staff at the ATV Control
Centre, the control centres in Moscow and Houston pulled together today. It
was a perfect dress-rehearsal for Thursday."
Today's manoeuvres included the first demonstration of the critical optical
navigation system, using the European-developed Videometer technology. It
was confirmed that ATV can use this system to autonomously navigate to
within 11 m of the ISS.
"This demonstration day confirmes the performance of the vehicle is even
better than we had hoped for," said Nicolas Chamussy, Astrium ATV Project
Manager. "This is a world premier for automated rendezvous using optical
sensors, following the world's first demonstration of relative GPS
navigation between Jules Verne and the Station performed on Saturday."
"Today was an important success for the Toulouse control centre to
orchestrate a human-rated mission with the Station and it is a main step
which is very promising for the docking attempt on Thursday," added Lionel
Baize, ATV-CC Project Manager for the French space agency, CNES. "It is an
incredible challenge to have three control centres working together and to
interact live with the ISS crew."
Mission controllers at the ATV Control Centre (ATV-CC) in Toulouse, France,
also confirmed they could issue very specific commands to Jules Verne,
including Hold Retreat and Resume. These commands may have to be issued if
any unforeseen problems occur in the ATV's automatic guidance system.
Today's demonstration also included the first active participation of the
ISS crew in the mission. Once ATV had reached the 11-metre stand-off point,
the astronauts were instructed to issue a Retreat command bringing Jules
Verne back to the 19-metre point. The crew then issued an Escape command,
which automatically took Jules Verne to a safe location away from the ISS.
The close approach to the ISS presented the ATV team with an opportunity to
inspect some thermal blankets on the exterior of the spacecraft that had
become degraded. "These were in exactly the positions that our thermal
analysis had predicted. At the moment we do not envisage that this will have
any impact on Thursday's planned first docking attempt," said John Ellwood,
ESA's ATV Project Manager. "We have addressed with our ISS partners the
increase in power we might need to maintain the temperatures and we foresee
no problems."
Data collected during Demonstration Day 2 will be made available to ISS
managers for their go-ahead to proceed with a first docking attempt on
Thursday. Jules Verne ATV is scheduled to dock with ISS at 16:41 CEST (14:41
UT) on 3 April.
[NOTE: Images and weblinks supporting this release are available at
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMSGE5QGEF_index_1.html ]