Over the last 30 years, Europe has progressively developed its own space transportation capabilities and is carrying out increasingly complex missions to Low Earth Orbit as well as to other planets. It has also achieved a foothold in human spaceflight with the Columbus laboratory for the International Space Station (ISS) and the ATV cargo spacecraft, both developed by Astrium on behalf of ESA.
In order to consolidate these strategic capabilities and enable European human spaceflight to take a decisive step forward, Europe is now willing to maximise exploitation of the ISS beyond 2015 (ISS to Earth cargo return capability), as well as to develop autonomous European human access to space (crew transportation capability), in full agreement with its international partners.
Following the ESA Ministerial Council meeting in November 2008, Member States consequently approved a new tranche of the ISS Development Programme, European Transportation & Human Exploration Preparatory Activities. This programme will run over 18 months from 2009 until 2011 and covers four main topics, one of which is the Phase A studies for a European Transportation System called ARV (Advanced Re-entry Vehicle).
Astrium Space Transportation, as the prime contractor to ESA, is responsible for the ARV Phase A studies. A stepped approach for the European space transportation system development is proposed, starting with the implementation of an ARV cargo transportation capability, with the objective of using this for cargo freight to the ISS and back to Earth in support of ISS operations beyond 2015. A crew transportation version, which will allow initial flight testing to the ISS, could become available in the 2020 timeframe.
Drawing on existing expertise and the ATV architecture, the new ARV space transportation system for cargo will comprise two main modules:
- a Service Module; derived from the ATV spacecraft
- a Re-entry Module
For the crew version, a Crew Escape System will be added.
The European Transportation & Human Exploration Preparatory Activities programme includes:
- Phase A of the cargo transportation and download system development including docking systems for the Russian and US parts of the ISS;
- predevelopment of a crew-compatible Resource Module replacing also the Ariane 5 second stage;
- preliminary definition of the design constraints derived from crew-specific and operational aspects and from the crew escape system
