e-CRV - DESIGN STUDY OF A EUROPEAN CREW RETURN VEHICLE

摘要

This paper presents the study of a Crew Return Vehicle performed last year by EADS SPACE Transportation, at a time, before the decision to retire the Space Shuttle was taken, when such a development seemed relevant. The objective of this e-CRV study was to define a simple, modem and low-cost reference architecture for such a crew return system based on ATV, ARD and X-38/CRV and on similar vehicle studies performed in Europe since the eighties. The reference Return mission taken as hypothesis is described, as well as corresponding requirements. The main results of the study are presented, such as the overall configuration of the vehicle and its functional architecture, as well as the design selected for the main subsystems. The overall mass properties are also described. The e-CRV concept offers a basis for further studies to be conducted in Europe in 2004 and 2005 on the same class of vehicles, as well as on Cargo and Crew Transport Vehicles or human spacecraft for Exploration.