ESA’s André Kuipers: video message on ATV-3

Posted on 15 May 2012 08:22 by Daniel View all posts by Daniel

A great videogram from André Kuipers highlighting the ATV Edoardo Amaldi mission to the ISS. André describes the mission’s role and some of the great things ATV brings to space — including food, scientific experiments and four tonnes of fuel for reboosting Station.

Editor’s note: For more from @Astro_Andre, watch his video introduction of today’s WWF Living Planet Report, which reports on changes in biodiversity by tracking 9000 populations of more than 2600 of the world’s species. André wrote the foreword to the report and is doing his part to show how fragile our world really is.
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Debrief on ATV-3 operations from ISS crew

Posted on 14 May 2012 17:46 by Daniel View all posts by Daniel

ESA’s ATV training team from the European Astronaut Centre take part in debriefings with astronauts upon return from missions involving the ATV. The first-hand information helps improve training and standards for future ATV-using astros.

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ISS crew perform successful GPS repair

Posted on 14 May 2012 14:56 by maria View all posts by maria
International Space Station

International Space Station

Expedition 31 crewmembers Don Pettit and André Kuipers were given an extra task on their timeline today – to fix a failed Global Positioning System (GPS) on the International Space Station. The repair was given certain priority as two operational GPS are required for next week’s scheduled arrival of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

The GPS failed last week and attempts to restore it from the ground were not succesful. Today Don and André’s timelines were rearranged to give them time to remove and replace hardware for the system. After completing the repair, just after 15:30 CEST this afternoon the Station crew received word from the ground that the GPS is now ‘working just fine’.

The Dragon spacecraft is scheduled for launch on 19 May, 10:55 CEST (08:55 UT). Berthing of Dragon with the ISS is set for 22 May.

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Astro Pettit, Astro Kuipers unloading ATV-3

Posted on 11 May 2012 14:20 by Daniel View all posts by Daniel

A couple of (largely similar) updates via NASA’s Daily Station Reports for Wednesday and Thursday this week. As of today, 1718 kg (78%) of ATV-3 cargo has been transferred to the ISS, and ATV Amaldi has accepted 390 kg of trash.

Wed, 9 May

NASA astronaut Don Pettit had about 90 minutes set aside for more ATV-3 cargo operations (unloading & unpacking into stowage) and bag cleaning, which includes stowing discarded bags and foam packing material in Edoardo Amaldi, including a tag-up with the ground at about 13:30 CEST for a status report.

Thu, 10 May

Later, ESA astronaut André Kuipers had about 2 hrs set aside for more ATV-3 cargo operations (unloading & unpacking into stowage) and bag cleaning, which includes stowing discarded bags and foam packing material in Edoardo Amaldi, including a tag-up with the ground at about 14:40 CEST for a status report.

Editor’s note: In a ‘tag-up’, the astronaut calls ground to discuss how the cargo transfer is going – how it’s progressing, what’s where, report what’s happening, etc., before moving on; essentially, an informal information swap.

 

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Water flows, fuel burns and avoiding debris

Posted on 9 May 2012 12:02 by Daniel View all posts by Daniel

CONTINUED — Diary from a space project 3 May, Thursday, L+42

A continuation of Charlotte Beskow’s ‘Mission Diary’ update from last week. PLUS: Read below for a great overview of the orbital debris situation – Ed.

Water transfer

Independently of what were were doing on the RICU, the crew took the opportunity last week to discharge some more water. Twenty two litres of Russian water was transferred to a Russian water container; a total of 88 litres have now been transferred.

How water transfer from ATV to Station appears in ATV-CC

How water transfer from ATV to Station appears in ATV-CC

Apart from the verbal reporting on the voice loops, we can monitor these transfers by looking at the pressure parameters of the ATV tanks. Another good indication that something is happening inside ATV is the ON / OFF status of the lights inside ATV.

As an aside, we note that each crew is different: some always turn the lights OFF when they leave, others leave at least one light ON all the time — just like the rest of us!

Continue reading →

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Troubleshooting at 28,000 kms/hour

Posted on 6 May 2012 14:13 by Daniel View all posts by Daniel

Diary from a space project 3 May, Thursday, L+42

An update from ESA’s Charlotte Beskow, deputy ATV team head, from Toulouse, reporting on activities on Thursday and Friday, 3-4 May, to troubleshoot the electrical system connecting ATV to the ISS – Ed.

Thursday, 3 May

RSCE experts have arrived in Toulouse for this attempt, Galina and Andrei and Yuri are gazing at the screens showing the RECS TM. . We also have our own experts, Gildas (Bremen) and Philippe (Les Mureaux) as well as Regina and Jacques (our formal interface to the RSCE experts). Other experts (vehicle behaviour, computer data, power and thermal) are present in the room (but not in the picture) Credit: ESA/C. Beskow

RSCE experts have arrived in Toulouse for this attempt, Galina and Andrei and Yuri are gazing at the screens showing the RECS TM. . We also have our own experts, Gildas (Bremen) and Philippe (Les Mureaux) as well as Regina and Jacques (our formal interface to the RSCE experts). Other experts (vehicle behaviour, computer data, power and thermal) are present in the room (but not in the picture) Credit: ESA/C. Beskow

The Flight Control Team (FCT) and the Engineering Support Team (EST) had been preparing for this day ever since we lost a part of the equipment that interfaces the Russian Systems (RICU11) on 30 March.

[Editor's note: On 30 March, the command path to one of four RICU units (part of the ATV-to-ISS electrical interface) failed. Later, a second back-up chain was successfully switched on to take over the lost command path and the ATV-to-ISS power bus connection was restored 31 March. Details here.]

At the time the incident happened, the vehicle reacted correctly, i.e., it switched off the suspect equipment and reconfigured the power connection to use another chain. This allowed us to continue our planned, nominal operations with ATV-3 docked to the ISS.

Over Easter and during the following weeks, engineering teams were busy analysing data to see what had happened. This was done in close cooperation with our Russian colleagues.

Continue reading →

Posted in ATV team, ATV-3, ATV-CC, ISS, ISS Partners, Mission diary, Operations, Technology & engineering | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

ATV-3: Wrap up on a busy week

Posted on 4 May 2012 15:45 by Daniel View all posts by Daniel

(Note: Updated 6 May with comment on water transfer from Mike Steinkopf) ESA’s Daniel Firre sent in a note after lunch today (see our post immediately below – Ed.) with a summary/wrap up on some of the activities at ATV-CC this week.

The big event was today’s ISS reboost, which left the Station orbiting 3 m/second faster and over 5 km higher.

Continue reading →

Posted in ATV team, ATV-3, ATV-CC, Cargo, Flight dynamics, ISS, Operations | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

ISS reboost complete – and it’s time for lunch

Posted on 4 May 2012 14:12 by Daniel View all posts by Daniel

Some of the colleagues from the joint CNES/ESA ATV operations team having lunch at ATV-CC after this morning’s ISS reboost (details shortly).

Lunch break at ATV-CC following successful ISS reboost 4 May Credit: ESA/Charlotte Beskow

Lunch break at ATV-CC following successful ISS reboost 4 May Credit: ESA/Charlotte Beskow

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ATV model spotted at ISS Symposium Berlin

Posted on 3 May 2012 15:30 by Daniel View all posts by Daniel

Ahhh… we knew it wouldn’t be long before someone spotted the ATV model at the excellent ISS Symposium, Berlin, taking place 2-4 May 2012. Thanks to Brigitte Bailleul (@Brigitte_Ba) for a nice photo! And follow the symposium live via ESA’s blog.

ATV at ISS Symposium Berlin 2012 credit: @Brigitte_Ba

ATV at ISS Symposium Berlin 2012 credit: @Brigitte_Ba

 There actually is an #ATV model at #ISSBerlin! twitter.com/Brigitte_Ba/st…

— Brigitte Bailleul (@Brigitte_Ba) May 3, 2012

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Astro Andre packs for ATV-3 and Dragon

Posted on 2 May 2012 21:00 by Daniel View all posts by Daniel

European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers, Expedition 30 flight engineer, uses a communication system near a robotic workstation in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station.

European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers, Expedition 30 flight engineer, uses a communication system near a robotic workstation in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

(From NASA’s daily Station update) Flight Engineer André Kuipers worked to transfer cargo and trash back and forth from ATV Edoardo Amaldi (Automated Transfer Vehicle-3). He also packed gear to be stowed and returned to Earth aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule.

The Falcon 9 rocket that will launch Dragon to space successfully test fired its engines for two seconds at the launch pad Monday afternoon. However, the first commercial cargo craft’s May 7 launch target appears unlikely as SpaceX continues to work through the software assurance process with NASA.

Via NASA

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