ESA Issues First Jules Verne Payload List

[zavvy]

<b>ESA Issues First Jules Verne Payload List</b><br /><br />LINK<br /><br />In 2006, with the launch of Jules Verne, the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) will become the new European powerful automatic re-supply spaceship able to bring an indispensable payload to the International Space Station and its permanent crew. This first ATV will carry a mix of supplies depending on the Station’s needs and its own payload capacity.<br /> <br />ESA, NASA and Russian counterparts are already defining the priorities to accommodate the most appropriate combination of different supplies for this inaugural flight. The combination is quite flexible and can include different amounts of re-boost propellant, refuelling propellant for the Station’s own propulsion system, drinking water, air and dry cargo, which is stored in the 48 m3 pressurized section of the ATV. <br />In all Jules Verne will carry about seven tonnes of cargo to the orbiting outpost 400 km or so above the Earth thanks to the Ariane 5 launcher, which is capable of boosting up to 20.5 tonnes into low Earth orbit. <br /><br />Although ATV will dock to the Russian Zvezda module, it will carry most of its dry payload for the US elements of the ISS. At the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, six weeks before flight, Jules Verne will be loaded with 1 300 kg of dry cargo out of the 5 500 kg maximum capacity. <br /><br />Most of the dry cargo provided by NASA will be clothes, food, towels and wipes for the crew, logistics items such as batteries and spare parts for maintenance of the Station. This cargo will also include ESA experiments such as ANITA, which will constantly monitor the cabin air, and some Russian hardware to be added to the panels of the Station's Russian Service Module. <br /><br />Contained in bags of different sizes, the cargo is loaded horizontally through the large opening at the aft end of the pressurized module, opposite the docking syste

 

[henryhallam]

Interesting to read, thank you. The ATV sounds quite flexible.