Ioonos

The ATV, Europe’s wager!

Jean-François Clervoy, an astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA)*, is one of the main players on the ATV*, the strange, European freighter that will soon be ready to join the International Space Station (ISS)* and to dock with it. He goes over his mission that has been completed.

IOONOS: What has been your contribution to the ATV?

Jean-François Clervoy: As a specialist on the project, I specified the operational training for the astronauts who will be aboard the International Space Station when the ATV arrives. What is special about the ATV is that it is automated, but when it comes close there is a critical moment. The crew has to monitor the final approach, and it will have to act a bit like a test pilot who is testing some technical performance for the first time. The astronauts will not be in the ATV, but they will have a remote control console to direct it.

IOONOS: How is the crew prepared?

Jean-François Clervoy: We have managed to reduce to two weeks the preparation time required on the ground. Once aboard, the crew will go over the training using software on portable computers. We have designed a sort of video game with simulations of the approach and cases of sudden breakdowns. Once docked, the ATV becomes an integral module and the crew can enter it and will have things to do inside – quite simple, actually.

IOONOS: Of what is the ATV the forerunner?

Jean-François Clervoy: The ATV is the first cooperative programme between the Americans, Russians and Europeans. The Russians because we are interfacing with their part of the Station. The Americans because they are the bosses of the Station and because it will be their crew that receives the ATV. And we Europeans, because we built it (the project was awarded by the ESA to the European company EADS Astrium).
The ATV represents a technological achievement that will allow us to leapfrog our partners. In manned flights, the rendezvous and coming alongside have always been manual for the Americans. The Russians have had automatic ones, but much less sophisticated. With the ATV, Europe is mastering the rendezvous, a decisive issue for distant exploration.