ATV Power Glitch Resolved
ATV-3 Power Connection Successful, Reboost Set
“Multi-national flight controllers successfully connected a backup power channel Saturday to the European Space Agency’s “Edoardo Amaldi” Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) cargo ship, enabling electricity to flow from the International Space Station to the ATV to set the stage for a reboost of the station Saturday afternoon while avoiding an early undocking of the resupply craft.”
Folks:
Good save for the ESA. It would have been a shameless waste of a soon-to-be shamelessly wasted spacecraft. It has such potential too.
The simplest way to save the ATV would be to let a tunnel from the pressurized module through the service module, duplicate the docking mechanism on the aft end and leave it right where it is! I’m sure the Russians wouldn’t mind “big room” in their segment.
Outfitted properly, the ATV would make a good core service module for new space stations all by itself. Just the sort of core module that Bigelow has been looking for for a decade.
Take the idea a bit further and the ATV would make a good free flying spacecraft too. Dock a Soyuz, Dragon or whatever to the ATV and go somewhere! Geosync, Lunar orbit, L1. Elbow room and a life boat for three to seven crew. Reusable too. What’s not to like?
It doesn’t take hardware to make things happen (it’s already there), it takes initiative!
So? Where is it?
tinker
“It doesn’t take hardware to make things happen (it’s already there), it takes initiative!”
You are overlooking the fact that ATV has no regnerative ELCSS capability. That’s a pretty big piece of hardware which would definitely be needed for longer voyages.
Pete:
Like I said, initiative. For the crew version of Dragon, Spacex intends to make their Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) as a bolt in appliance. I’m sure an upgrade of that sort of system for greater volume and duration would work for a free flying crewed ATV. Modularizing systems like life support greatly improves flexibility.
Folks have got to stop thinking outside the very constraining box of government designed spacecraft, where every department and their dogs are fighting for every cubic inch of cabin space.
Dragon is a perfect example of commercial design applied to spacecraft. Bare bones, the cabin of the Dragon capsule is pristine. It flew that way too, on it’s first operational flight, with nothing but a wheel of cheese bolted to the floor (plus some cameras and sensors). What do you need? Seven crew ferry flight? Four crew and cargo? All cargo? Reusable fuel tanker? Propulsion stage? Free-flying DragonLab? Lunar orbiter/lander? Phobos lander?
And, as I mentioned above, a crew transport/lifeboat for a free flying ATV.
See what I mean?
Has the ESA even considered selling those slightly used ATVs after their missions are over? Pickup would, of course, be the responsibility of the purchaser ;).
tinker
Tinker,
SpaceX ELCSS and long-duration deep space ECLSS are two very different things.
SpaceX ELCSS will only be required to work for a few weeks at a time, and thus can be open loop, as Shuttle’s was.
Long duration ECLSS will be required to work for years on end, and thus will need to be closed loop. We haven’t even perfected the ECLSS design on ISS yet, where, combined with associated crew support equipment, it takes up several rack bays of volume – while ATV only has four rack bays of volume available, which would likely be needed purely for food stores for any BEO mission.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for repurposing our current assets to do things beyond what they were designed – and ISS is an excellent example of what we could (and should) use in future BEO architectures. But I don’t think it’s as simple as just throwing some ELCSS into an ATV and shooting it beyond LEO.
I do believe however that the ATV would make an excellent service module/tug/in-space transfer vehicle in any future BEO architecture.
“We haven’t even perfected the ECLSS design on ISS yet, where, combined with associated crew support equipment, it takes up several rack bays of volume”
Pete,
That’s a very significant sentence. It nicely (but unfortunately) wraps up the state of affairs on ISS and at NASA in general. After all of these years, something that was identified as absolutely critical decades before Sputnik and Mercury is still basically in its infancy.
“We haven’t even perfected the ECLSS design on ISS yet!” I’d sure like to see that as a header or logo on every piece of NASA correspondence and all paper work pertaining to NASA planning by other agencies. I’d love to see that message drummed home to everybody involved until a lot more people develop a little useful perspective. SLS/Orion for BEO? Don’t anybody hold their breath. On second thought, maybe you’d better; it might be the only option.
Steve
Nice post Mr. whitfield 🙂
“We haven’t even perfected the ECLSS design on ISS yet!”
But remember spaceflight is very hard! and even harder if you don’t go after the difficulties and solve them and move on.
Still puzzled?
Joe Tax Payer
Inner Solar System Railroad
main office LEO
Date soon!
Mr. tinker !!!!
If you think you can park your ATVs on our dragon, falcon second stage fuel beam that we paid Spacex to boost up here,without paying, or kicking in with future expansion cost, Think again buddy!!! But lets TALK I’m sure we can make a deal lolololol
ISSR Management
Tinker,
Even if the ATV did nothing more than it currently does, I consider it an amazing machine, much more of an accomplishment than it seems to get credit for (or maybe that’s just because we’re in North America). This sort of “load it up, fire it off, and forget about it” method is (I firmly believe) going to be a necessary standard in the future if we’re ever going to either colonize or extract resources from our solar system. An enormous part of the cost of most of what we do in space comes from people baby-sitting hardware 24/7, often in large groups. ATV shows us that there’s another way; a way which is much more cost effective when it’s applicable.
Steve
I find the thought of using this ATV in new smart ways interesting and exciting. I don’t understand why there are only 9 posts on this subject.
ISS Garbage Solution
Inner Solar System Railroad
MEMO
Attention!
Help wanted?
Dragon trunk garbage dumper project
We at ISSR are interested in hiring a startup company that
can provide us with a Space Garbage Bag.
Your solution needs to weigh less than Two hundred pounds.
Including fuel and fit in a dragon trunk
It needs to hold a volume equal to or greater than ESAs ATV.
Your design can include de-orbiting rockets that are cheap
and disposable.
We are also interested in de-orbiting rocket designs with docking
ring that can slow the garbage bag for burn up reentry and then return to ISS
for more bags.
WE do not understand why the ISS program is burning up very
expensive ATVS when this could be done so much cheaper.
We are in negotiations with ESA now to buy their junk ATVs
after they make their cargo flights to ISS and are planning to store them on
our fuel space beam till they can be up graded for LEO and BEO missions.
We are a company with old fashion values and conduct our
business with old adages in mind like
WASTE NOT WANT NOT
Necessity is the mother of invention
ONE MANS JUNK IS ANOTHER MANS TREASURE
ISSR management
WHY are we trashing inner solar system hardware to throw out
Garbage??
Joe Tax payer that pays for ISS
Hummm, maybe this
garbage dumper is a dragon trunk with rockets added and slows and releases the bag
then flies back to ISS. One dragon mission could carry many bags and be refueled
from dragon.
Throwing out junk with high dollar spaceships????
baffled again!!!!!!!!
Doesn’t take a rocket scientist?
News Flash parallel universe
ISS crew, use their garage/workshop to modify a Dragon trunk
garbage scowl to hold more fuel to make heroic robot mission to save Russian Phobos mission after it was lost in low earth orbit
after a computer glitch. The little
robot used a hook to grab the Russian ship and pulled it back to ISS where it
will be saved for 2 years and boosted to the mars moon, Next time it will be boosted
from Inner Solar System Railroad’s refuel beam in LEO by a refueled dragon
second stage booster.
Parallel lines