* Astronomy

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RE: ESApod

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The second Galileo satellite, GIOVE-B, is equipped with the most accurate clock ever to be flown in space. GIOVE B will be launched from Baikonur on 27 April.

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GIOVE-B will be a satellite very close to the satellites planned for the operational Galileo system to be deployed by 2013. In particular it will carry a high precision atomic clock which, once on orbit, will be the most accurate clock ever flying in space. With this launch the European Space Agency and the European Commission are consolidating the foundations of Galileo, the first global civil positioning system.

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Blobrana · L

The European Union and the European Space Agency are taking to implement Galileo and achieve the full deployment of the first civil satellite navigation system.

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On 14 March, ATV successfully demonstrated the crucial Collision Avoidance Manoeuvre, or CAM, in which an automated system successfully took over control of the vessel and moved to a safe location. Now, two more 'Demonstration Days' are scheduled prior to the actual docking. The first, 29 March, will demonstrate that the ATV can automatically calculate its position and manoeuvre with respect to the Station using relative GPS navigation; it will also perform an 'Escape' manoeuvre from the S2 position, some 3500 m behind the ISS. The data from this rehearsal will be analysed by ATV mission managers and NASA and Russian partners before proceeding to a second Demonstration Day, on 31 March. This second dry-run will test close proximity manoeuvring and control, including contingency manoeuvres for both the ATV control centre and the crew aboard the ISS. The ATV will approach first to within 20 metres of the station, retreat, then approach even nearer, to a point only 12 metres from the docking port on the ISS Russian Zvezda module, before again backing off to a safe 100-metre distance. Demo Day 2 will provide ultimate proof that Europe's resupply vessel is absolutely ready for final rendezvous and docking.

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A number of missions have spent time exploring these unknown worlds in the solar system. In January 2005, the European lander, Huygens stunned the world as it landed on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, revealing unexpected data. Missions such as ESA's SMART-1, which compiled the first comprehensive inventory of key chemical elements in the lunar surface and tested new technology, have become increasingly important today. To follow-up on the technological breakthroughs of SMART-1, ESA will be participating in Chandrayaan-1, the Indian space agency's lunar mission, due for launch in 2008.

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Provided by Thales Alenia Space in Italy, Jules Verne ATVs Integrated Cargo Carrier is about half the volume of ESAs Columbus laboratory. Around 180 kg of European cargo was first packed in Italy before being transported to Kourou, in French Guiana. Before the cargo was loaded into the spacecraft, the entire pressurised section was disinfected as a sanitary precaution. Some 1200 kg of supplies, mainly from NASA, were stored on board, including 500 kg of food, and 80 kg of clothing and spare parts. Amongst the cargo are also gifts for the ISS crew, including a luxury 19th Century edition of Jules Verne's work 'From the Earth to the Moon', and the winning music playlist from ESA's ATV competition, selected to inspire them and brighten their day. The ATV's tanks were loaded with drinkable water, oxygen, nitrogen and fuel for the Space Station's propulsion system. After further sanitary inspections the hatch was closed, the ATV was purged and filled with pure synthesized air. Once docked with the International Space Station, astronauts will be able to access the cargo section without spacesuits, to unload supplies, to store others, to place waste material to be discarded and even use it as a rest quarters.

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The 48 cubic meter pressurised cargo module gives the ATV a capacity three times greater than existing space freighters. Its racks can be packed with more than 1300 kg of food, clothes, and equipment. Reservoirs can carry several hundred litres of drinking water and gases. Other tanks are loaded with important quantities of propellants. Astronauts will unload the cargo at their leisure, and use it as a storage area. Unwanted items and refuse placed inside will burn up when the vessel re-enters the Earth's atmosphere at the end of its mission. Other ATVs will follow. The five scheduled between now and 2015, will be crucial elements of the ISS, particularly after the last Shuttle flight in 2010. And future versions of the spacecraft are already on the drawing boards. The ATV Programme represents an investment of some 1.3 billion Euros since 1995, to the benefit of European industry. Under the direction of ESA and prime contractor EADS Astrium, engineers throughout the continent have contributed to this new generation spacecraft. Major sub-contractors include Thales Alenia Space (Italy), Astrium (Germany and France), Oerlikon Space (Switzerland), Dutch Space (The Netherlands), with Russian partners providing the advanced docking mechanism.

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From 1998, the International Space Station has required regular visits - to date 58 dockings - of the Shuttles, Soyuz crew, and Progress supply ships. Unmanned - but man-rated ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) has the unique capability to perform automatic rendezvous in a fully autonomous manner. The rendezvous of ESA's Jules Verne ATV with the ISS uses GPS navigation, star tracker devices, two critical sensors, a telegoniometer and a videometer. After raising its orbit to some 400 kilometres, the ATV will come in sight of the ISS, and from about 30 kilometres distance behind, and 5 kilometres below, it will close in on its target. For any emergency occurring during spacecraft navigation, flight controllers can at anytime call on the ATV independent system and back away from the Space Station. Astronauts on the ISS can also reject the spacecraft in case of anomalies. Their task onboard is ensuring ATV either touches at the right place at the right speed, or doesnt touch at all. With its unprecedented cargo and re-boost capabilities, ATV will service the Space Station for many years and could become a unique asset after the Shuttle retirement in 2010. Its advanced technologies will no doubt have other uses: for robots to recover old satellites and space debris, to return planetary samples back to Earth, for the remote construction of large space structures, and notably for interplanetary journeys.

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Equipped with its own propulsion and navigation system, the unmanned ATV "space truck" - dubbed 'Jules Verne' - has a sophisticated automatic navigation system. Even though the ATV is an automatic space vehicle, ground control experts from ESA and CNES, the French space agency, will be heavily involved in operations. They are prepared for any contingency, determining the route the spacecraft must take to dock with the ISS and working closely with the other two ISS control centres involved in ATV operations: the Mission Control Centre - Moscow (MCC-M) and the MCC-H, in Houston. At each of these control centres, European, American and Russian engineers coordinate their actions and carry out final manoeuvres with extreme precision.

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