A quick update from Jean-Michel Bois at ATV-CC, where many members of the ESA/CNES mission control team enjoyed only a short weekend as ATV-4 came to a successful conclusion. I had mailed to ask him if the next round of simulation training would start already. He replied:
No simulations yet (first in January)!
Beforehand, we need to archive the ATV-4 data… then clean the computers and hard disks. Afterwards, there’s implementation of a few changes in the hardware configuration (network, redundancies, etc.). At the end of the month, we’ve got installation of the ATV-CC ATV5 version software (adapted databases, a few software corrections and upgrades, etc.). December is dedicated to checking and validating this new environment. The goal is to be ready for a major ATV operations milestone, the SRKP (Simulation Readiness Key Point), which is now planned for 9 January. This provides the ‘Go’ to start the simulation and training campaign.
Jean-Michel Bois at ATV-CC
Immediately after, we’ll have two major simulations – for the rendezvous (RDV) and the launch/LEOP phase. The first trilateral coordinated training (ESA-NASA-RSCE + ground networks) – called the ‘JIS’ for Joint Integrated Simulation – is scheduled on 22 January.
As you can see, actually, the schedule is very tight and each day is important. No vacation for the teams!
– JMichel
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Discussion: one comment
First of all, congratulations on another successful mission. May there be many more.
Are there any plans to make more ATVs after the current series (I seem to remember reading a couple of years ago about that possibility)?