ATV - DESCRIPTION OF ITS MECHANICAL DEVELOPMENT LOGIC AND ITS SPECIFICITIES

摘要

The ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) is an European autonomous space vehicle the mission of which consists on supplying the International Space Station ISS. Notably on the mechanical and structural point of view, the ATV can be characterised by a very tight development schedule associated with cheap cost, specific requirements of cargo flexibility, versatility linked to its mission. In addition stringent safety constraints related to the presence of the ISS crew when attached to the Station have to be taken into account. All those specific aspects when compared to a classical payload have led to implement dedicated development logic impacting analyses as well as tests. In terms of analyses, one of the most original features lies in the way that ARIANE 5 environment is considered : dedicated outputs issued directly from the Coupled Load Analyses (CLA) are analysed and used at ATV level. In addition, due to the diversity of the cargo, the choice of the vehicle configurations judged sizing should be defined in narrow concurrence with the Launcher authorities. Concerning tests, a double logic, based at once on a proto-type and proto-flight approaches is established with two main test campaigns : one using the STM (Structural Test Model) for development and qualification processes and one utilising the PFM (Proto-Flight Model) for the acceptance.