THE AUTOMATED TRANSFER VEHICLE (ATV) - IMPACTS OF IMPLEMENTING OPTIONAL MISSIONS TOWARDS MIR

In 1986, the European Space Agency initiated studies of a transportati on system based on an automatic vehicle devoted to the servicing of or bital elements: the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). This system is c omposed of the vehicle itself (its cargoes are provided by the users i n a ready-to-launch state), and of a ground segment consisting of laun ch and ground processing/control centers as well as of support equipme nt. The reference mission of this system is to ensure for a limited co st the logistic servicing (and possibly also to support the assembly/b uilding) of the Space Station Freedom (SSF) thanks to an expendable tr ansfer stage launched by Ariane 5 and fully compatible with manned env ironments and already existing operational procedures. In this frame, ATV is designed to be able to deliver a cargo, that may be pressurized or not, from its injection point to its orbital target, to remain att ached to this target during cargo unload/reload operations, and to the n perform a controlled destructive atmospheric re-entry allowing space station wastes disposal. A high level requirement, however, imposed A TV to be also designed as a highly versatile vehicle, its nominal gene ric capabilities making it be directly capable of (or reasonably adapt able for) performing numerous optional missions that could range from multiple servicing ones for LEO spacecraft to logistic supply of alter native stations. The purpose of this paper is thus to recall the curre nt baseline design adopted for ATV and deriving from the last years of studies and from requirements/context evolutions, and to then focus o n the related impacts or constraints that would be imposed in case opt ional missions towards MIR were to be achieved. This paper is in this last respect based on data from the literature and on the results of p reliminary analyses carried out for ESA in the frame of the 1991 ''LOg istic VEhicle'' (LOVE) study [1] that involved the Russian company NPO ENERGIA (developer of the Mir station and of the Progress transfer ve hicle), and of a contract awarded to AEROSPATIALE in 1992 [2].