ATV-3 fuelling gets underway

CAMPAIGN DATE: ATV-3 launch -1 month: Day 150 of the Launch Campaign

The second update of 2012 from ESA’s Charlotte Beskow in Kourou. This post written 14 Jan – Ed.

Loading of Russian fuel is halfway done!!

Saturday
Rainy season has started in Kourou. however since today happens to be sunny I shall make my stay in the office as short as possible. Today’s’ planned refuelling activities are finished, the daily meeting has been held and the report has gone out. I give myself 30 mins to give you a flair of what’s been happening out here.

The most frequently asked question is “why is your launch campaign so long?” One of the many answers is …”because we have a lot of cargo to load”.

After all, that is the purpose of the ATV. The customer, in this case NASA and the other ISS partners, wants as much flexibility as possible in choosing which cargo to load. This affects us out here in two ways:

1.  The gas loading is defined at L- 2 months i.e. whether we carry oxygen, nitrogen or air, or a combination of two of them.
2.  Late load of roughly 700 kg of dry cargo ca 13 days before launch

But, back to the fuel, and we have a lot of fuel to load:

•  The fuel ATV needs for it’s journey to and from the ISS (ca 2200 kg)
•  The propellant to be used by ATV while attached, for ISS attitude control and re-boost (ca 3000 kg)
•  The fuel that will be transferred to the Russian part of the ISS (ca 860 kg).

If you think of ATV as a big bus then the logical thing would be to drive up to a filling station, take the nozzle from the rack and put it to the tank opening. Whereupon you stand there as long as it takes to fill up. I do not know how many litres a bus’ ‘fuel-tank can hold but in any case you would need to stand there quite a while to fill 6,000 kg worth of fuel…

As you know there are signs at the gas station telling you not to smoke and to switch OFF your telephone.
The situation for ATV is not really all that different however, the devil is in the details.

1. To start with we have two different types of fuel. ATV fuel and Russian fuel. The two are not the same (you can think of it as unleaded petrol and diesel). Consequently you need a different set up, different hoses, different fuel drums etc. etc.
2.  We have no oxygen in space so for each type (ATV and Russian) we must load both fuel and oxidizer. This means we are loading 4 types of fluid.
3. All of the fuel is toxic. Therefore the loading takes place in a different area which provides all the facilities necessary for a hazardous operation. So, ATV has to be moved to this other hall. Easy task… it only weighs ca 15 tonnes. The path is via the corridor linking what we call S5C and S5B. The team follows every step of this process. It takes about 40 mins of actual moving time but a whole day “from A to Z”
4. Since the fuel is hazardous, the operations are performed in “scape” suits which resemble diving suits. They provide the operators with protection against a leak. They communicate with the test supervisor via radio sets. The test supervisor is sitting in a special control room where he can monitor the operations via cameras and the voice link. He reads out each step of the procedure and the operators performs the action and then reports what he has done. The test conductor has a big schematic on the wall and one of the team marks with a flag the position of the valves according to what the operator tells him.
5. We have to be certain that the fuel /oxidiser is OK before we load (there is no vehicle assistance we can call if the engines stall) so we do sampling and analysis before loading. This requires a specific set up and some time to do the analysis.
6. Because it is hazardous we do not just have one valve to open, there is a whole sequence of them, and since the tanks are sealed the “air” in the tank that is displaced when the fuel /oxidiser enters also has to be able to escape. This creates an impressive piping system to which you have to add security barriers, relief valves etc etc.
7. Before any fuel actually gets loaded we review everything together to make sure no task has been forgotten. We check sampling results, cleanliness certificates, safety related documentation, weather reports (no thunderstorm within 5 miles) etc etc. We also do an inspection of the facilities
8. I should also have mentioned that we weigh everything a few times to make sure we have enough fuel for the entire process and that we know exactly how much of it ends up in ATV.When all this is done we load the first type which was Russian fuel : UDMH. Actual loading of UDMH is now finished.
9. Now we repeat steps 5, 6, and 7 for the remaining three (Russian oxidiser, NTO, ATV fuel MMH and ATV oxidiser MON).

So, yesterday all was set up to perform the Russian oxidiser (NTO) sampling. Then we went and did our own sampling (TGIF). Arianespace had provided some special bubbly human fuel to mark the 100th day of the campaign (non toxic, so we did not need to wear SCAPE suits).

Then this morning the teams turned up at 06:00 to do the sampling (which took ca 4 hours… imagine how many cars you can fill up in that time frame… or buses for that matter). Sampling is now finished and the CSG lab is working to provide the results asap so that we can continue with the next step.

… on Monday we do degassing of the NTO, in order to make it “fit for consumption”.
Last but not least…

A team picture was taken before Edoardo left S5C.. (never to return we hope)

I could not help but think of Monty Python in “Life of Brian” “Are there any women present?”

Yes there were…

That’s it for today….
Time to enjoy the sunshine.
PS The main difference right now between Monday to  Friday and Saturday is that my colleagues turn up for work unshaven…. ….