This item not directly related to ATV, but we couldn't help but share this brilliant video by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. Everyone here at the ATV blog wishes Chris a safe journey home!
A revised version of David Bowie's Space Oddity, recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station.
With thanks to Emm Gryner, Joe Corcoran, Andrew Tidby and Evan Hadfield for all their hard work.
L'apprenti sage DVD
Students send 'Message to Earth' into space via ESA's ATV and back home via the US Dragon capsule - scroll down for link to complete DVD in YT
We have a great little story to share with you today on the completion of an imaginative journey taken by a group of young people from the local community youth group (MJC) in Elbeuf, France, 120km north-west of Paris.
The nine students, aged 9-16, sent a DVD to the ISS on board ATV Eduardo Amaldi, which launched from Kourou, French Guiana, on board Ariane flight VA205 on 23 March 2012. The disc was stored, of course, on board Europe's Columbus science module.
Youth team from MJC Elbeuf
The DVD contained a video, "L'Apprenti sage," produced by the students that spotlighted their vision of our future, how society should develop and their hopes and dreams; environmental issues and the future of our planet were main themes.
L'apprenti sage - Un message à la Terre. Teaser
The group was also invited by ESA and CNES, the French space agency, to visit Europe's Spaceport at Kourou to watch the ATV-3 launch in person during 9-13 March last year.
DVD packed in ATV CTB cargo bag
The launch was, unfortunately, delayed, but the students had an excellent tour of the Arianespace launch facilities as well as the surrounding tropical ecosystem in French Guiana.
The closing link in this tremendous space voyage was provided by SpaceX, when the well-travelled DVD was returned to Earth via the Dragon capsule's CRS-1 mission, 8-28 October 2012. The DVD was then shipped back to Europe via Bremen and returned to the young producers in Elbeuf.
L'Apprenti sage - packing bag
"It's important for all of us who work in space to ensure that young people are given opportunities to develop their interest and passion toward careers in science, technology, engineering and math," says Jean-Michel Bois, Head of the ATV Operations Division at the ATV Control Centre in Toulouse.
"This is especially crucial with young people who may not otherwise be exposed to role models or experience inspirational events related to STEM. For youth, participating in a real space adventure can change lives."
The youth were presented with certificates to mark the tremendous voyage taken by their video DVD and to offer congratulations from the managers at ATV-CC and Col-CC.
Best wishes to everyone at MJC Elbeuf!
The full DVD is now available in YT!
Certificate presented to Elbeuf MJC and the DVD Team
More details (in French) via here and here.
Here's the correct answer to the 3rd question in our Mission Quiz ("Name the two crew members who will oversee ATV-4 docking from inside the ISS") courtesy of ESA's Lionel Ferra at EAC/Cologne.
Lionel is a regular source for the ATV blog; he works with the ESA and international partner astronauts in Cologne training them on ATV operations.
Expedition 36 crew members take a break from training at NASA's Johnson Space Center to pose for a crew portrait. Pictured on the front row are Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov (left), commander; and Fyodor Yurchikhin, flight engineer. Pictured from the left (back row) are Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, all flight engineers. Photo credit: NASA
By Rhett Allain
(Today's post is in honour of International Star Wars Day: May the 4th be with you!)
Recently, the US government declined an online petition to build an actual Death Star. (The answer is brilliant and well worth reading! – Ed.) Yes, it’s a shocking decision in many ways, but let’s pretend for a moment that someone did want to build a Death Star. Could you use ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle to do this? Well, of course you could – but what would that be like?
ATV nearing the Death Star! Image credits - Death Star: Lucasfilm Ltd. © & TM. All Rights Reserved. ATV: ESA
Editor's note: In addition to having a knack for science communication, Rhett Allain is Associate Professor of Physics at Southeastern Louisiana University. He writes regularly for Wired's Dot Physics blog and is a bit of a physics fanatic who spends more time than many pondering how daily life intersects with science. With the recently announced development of ATV in cooperation with NASA for Orion, we're delighted to feature a few posts from the far side of the Atlantic. Enjoy!
If you want to estimate how many ATV launches it would take to build or supply the Death Star, you first need to know something about a Death Star. I could just make some wild estimates about the Death Star, but I won’t. Instead I will look at two interesting estimations.
Same as with Q2: In view of the fact that we're a bit late posting today's third (and final) question, the deadline for entering is extended until Monday, 22 April, 12:00 CEST - Ed.
Name the two crew members
who will oversee ATV-4 docking
from inside the ISS.
Reply via Twitter (using the #MissionQuiz hashtag) or post a reply in the blog under 'Comments'.
Here's the correct answer to Tuesday's 2nd question in our Mission Quiz ("In which blockbuster Hollywood movie did a desktop model of ATV recently appear? ") courtesy of our keen-eyed ATV blog co-editor Julien Harrod, who first spotted this magnificent scene with ATV in...
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Herewith, we're delighted to present the results of judging of the submissions sent in via Twitter and the blog!
Congratulations to the winner, Michel Derretiere, with the the first, best response:
Bonjour,
Le film, c'est Transformers 3. On voit aussi Ariane 5. Les 2 sont sur le bureau d'un ingenieur de la NASA. Je ne me rappelle plus exactement, mais la scene se passe dans la premiere partie du film. Le jour de gloire cinematographique de l'ATV 
In view of the fact that we're a bit late posting today, the deadline for entering is extended until Thursday, 18 April, 12:00 CEST - Ed.
In which blockbuster Hollywood movie
did a desktop model of ATV recently appear?
Bonus points:
Hint: 'In the same way that ATV is all about automation, this movie is all about transformation.'
While you're busy working on the ATV reboost homework questions posted by Rhett Allain (reminder: there are prizes!) – or if you're looking for, uhmmm, a somewhat less challenging challenge – here is Question 1 in this week's fabulous ATV-4 Mission Quiz (we'll post three questions this week). Thanks to the team at EAC and especially ATV training specialist Lionel Ferra for the inspiration!
View showing the gas & water delivery control panel mounted inside ATV and accessible to the crew.
First, the intro crescendo...
And here's Question 1:
Name the two European sources
of the two different types of H2O that
ATV transports to the ISS
Hint: Both sources may be near the same city...
Got answers? Post your best guess here in the blog or tweet via Twitter (use #missionquiz hashtag) before 12:00 CEST Tuesday, 16 April.
Details and rules after the jump.
By Rhett Allain
The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) doesn’t just bring supplies to the International Space Station. It can also be used for ISS reboosts. What is a reboost? In short, during a reboost, the ISS velocity is increased by a small amount to bring the space station up to a slightly higher orbit.
Why is this needed? Well, although the ISS is in space, there is still stuff up there (gas from the atmosphere) that exerts a small drag force on the Station, decreases its velocity. The reboost are there just to keep it where it needs to be.
This video shows the inside of the ISS during an ATV reboost, i.e. when the ATV's main thrusters were firing. Let’s see if we can estimate the ATV thrust based on the acceleration of astronauts inside the space station.
Rhett Allain
Editor's note: In addition to having a knack for science communication, Rhett Allain is Associate Professor of Physics at Southeastern Louisiana University. He writes regularly for Wired's Dot Physics blog and is a bit of a physics fanatic who spends more time than many pondering how daily life intersects with science. With the recently announced development of ATV in cooperation with NASA for Orion, we're delighted to feature a few posts from the far side of the Atlantic. Enjoy! – DGS
There are a couple of different ways you can measure the acceleration in NASA astronaut Mike Fossum's YouTube video, but I am going to use one of the astronauts themselves (we think this is the first scientific use of an astronaut's floating body as seen in a YT video to calculate ATV acceleration – Ed).
Basically, I will use a video analysis program (in this case, the free Tracker Video Analysis). With video analysis, you can get position and time data from each frame of a video. If the motion of the astronauts had been recorded from a side view, position vs. time would obviously be the best choice. As you can see in Mike's video above, however, Mike, astro Satoshi Furukawa and cosmonaut Sergy Volkov are moving away from the camera, so I will measure the angular size of a person.
As things move farther away from a camera, they also appear steadily smaller. Here is a diagram that shows the relationship between angle, size and distance.
If you know the angle theta (θ) and the length of the object, you can find the distance (which I call r) with the formula:
r = L / θ
With this, I can mark a point on each side of one of the receding astronauts as he accelerates away from the camera. With some basic estimations for the angular view of the camera (and size of an astronaut), I get the following plot of distance from the camera for one of the astronauts.
Russian press agency RIA NOVOSTI created this nice graphic showing the different vehicles that can transport cargo to the International Space Station. The full graphic is available here.
