Spaceship Destruction to be Seen From the Inside

As ESA¡¯s remaining supply ferry to the International Space Station burns up in the atmosphere, its final moments as its hull disintegrates will be recorded from the inside by a unique infrared camera.

An ESA-led team designed and developed the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) Break-Up Camera in just nine months in order to make it on board in time. ?

In Pic: Artist¡¯s view of ATV-5¡¯s destructive reentry into Earth¡¯s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.

ESA¡¯s fifth and last Automated Transfer Vehicle,Georges Lema?tre, will be launched on an Ariane 5 this summer from Europe¡¯s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. Source: ESA

Working at breakneck pace, the team designed, built and tested both the camera and the Reentry SatCom capsule to work like an aircraft-style ¡¯black box¡¯ to store images, then transmit them to Earth after the vessel¡¯s break-up via an Iridium satellite link.?

ESA¡¯s BUC camera will join Japan¡¯s i-Ball optical camera and NASA¡¯s Re-entry Break-up Recorder to give as full a picture as possible of the conditions inside the vehicle as it breaks up.

¡°These different instruments will complement each other,¡± explains Neil Murray, leading the project for ESA.

In Pic: The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) Break-Up Camera (BUC) incorporating the Infrared Camera instrument and SatCom device to be flown on ESA's final ATV, to record infrared footage from the inside of the spacecraft's break-up as it reenters the atmosphere. The camera is bolted onto an ATV panel; the infrared lens can be seen at the centre of the image. The 20 seconds of footage gathered by the BUC will be transmitted to the spherical SatCom device, right, which is coated in a ceramic heatshield. SatCom will survive the spacecraft¡¯s break-up to transmit the imagery to Iridium telecommunications satellite once it is in free space, falling to Earth.

NASA has flown similar experiments before with its recorder, while JAXA¡¯s i-Ball gathered photos during the reentry of their supply ship in 2012.

For ESA, this is something new, however. The challenge has been to design a capsule to survive the 1500?C reentry and transmit useful data to the ground no matter its altitude or orientation.

It also needs to overcome the blackout effect of the blowtorch-like ¡®plasma¡¯ of electrically charged gases enveloping reentering objects.

In Pic: ESA¡¯s Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATV) supply the International Space Station with fuel and cargo as well as boosting the Station¡¯s orbit.

The infrared camera, bolted to an ATV rack, will burn up with the rest of the spacecraft, but imagery of the final 20 seconds will be passed to the Reentry SatCom, a spherical capsule protected by a ceramic heatshield.

¡°The Reentry SatCom has an antenna, so that once ATV breaks up it begins transmitting the data to any Iridium communication satellites in line of sight,¡± adds Neil.

¡°The break-up will occur at about 80¨C70 km altitude, leaving the SatCom falling at 6¨C7 km/s. The fall will generate high-temperature plasma around it, but signals from its omnidirectional antenna should be able to make it through any gap in the plasma to the rear.

¡°Additionally, signalling will continue after the atmospheric drag has decelerated the SatCom to levels where a plasma is no longer formed ¨C somewhere below 40 km ¨C at a point where Iridium satellites should become visible to it regardless.¡±

In Pic: Image taken by the i-Ball camera at about 80 km altitude showing the reentry break-up of Japan's HTV spacecraft used for International Space Station resupply in September 2012. The same camera is flying on ESA¡¯s final ATV spacecraft, due to reenter the atmosphere in early 2015.

The latest and last of ESA¡¯s five automated space freighters, Georges Lema?tre is being prepared for launch by Ariane 5 from Europe¡¯s Spaceport in French Guiana.

Once in orbit, the ferry will dock to the Station to deliver more than six tonnes of propellant, supplies and experiments to the orbital outpost.

Then, after some six months as part of the Station, it will deliberately reenter over a remote part of the Pacific Ocean to burn up harmlessly.

All previous four ATVs have met the same fiery end, but there is heightened interest in the destructive reentry process this time because it is the final vehicle.

In Pic: ATVAlbert Einstein, Europe¡¯s supply and support ferry, after undocking with the International Space Station on 28 October 2013.

ATV-4 delivered 7 tonnes of supplies, propellant and experiments to the complex. ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano oversaw the unloading and cataloguing of the cargo, comprising over 1400 individual items.

The results will be used to confirm the computer models used to predict the break-up of reentering satellites. As one such craft, the Space Station will eventually be required to come down so there is interest in understanding the process.

¡°The data should also hold broader value,¡± says Neil. ¡°The project is proceeding under our ¡®Design for Demise¡¯ effort to design space hardware in such a way that it is less likely to survive reentry and potentially endanger the public.

¡°Design for Demise in turn is part of the Agency¡¯s Clean Space initiative, seeking to render the space industry more environmentally friendly in space as well as on Earth.¡±

In Pic: ATVAlbert Einstein, Europe¡¯s supply and support ferry, after undocking with the International Space Station on 28 October 2013.

ATV-4 delivered 7 tonnes of supplies, propellant and experiments to the complex. ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano oversaw the unloading and cataloguing of the cargo, comprising over 1400 individual items.

In Pic: ESA¡¯s fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle, Albert Einstein, burnt up on 2 November at 12:04 GMT over an uninhabited area of the Pacific Ocean. It left the International Space Station a week earlier with 1.6 tonnes of waste after spending five months attached to the orbital outpost.

Each ATV mission ends with the spacecraft burning up harmlessly in the atmosphere. This time, however, the ATV team organised a special departure to gain valuable data on reentries.

After undocking at 09:00 GMT on 28 October, ATV-4 was instructed by its control centre in Toulouse, France to perform delicate manoeuvres over the course of five days to position itself directly below the Station. Astronauts on the Station observed the vessel from above as it disintegrated.

This image from the Station was taken when ATV-4 was around 100 km directly below and had began its destructive dive. It is the first view of an ATV reentry since the first, ofJules Verne, in 2008.

ATV-4 delivered 7 tonnes of supplies, propellant and experiments to the Space Station. ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano oversaw the unloading and cataloguing of the cargo, comprising over 1400 individual items.

Construction of the camera system and capsule was undertaken for ESA by RUAG in Switzerland, with its thermal protection system contributed by the DLR German Aerospace Center, Switzerland¡¯s ETH Zurich producing its software, Switzerland¡¯s Viasat designing the antenna and electronics, and Denmark¡¯s GomSpace delivering the batteries.

Flying to the Station as cargo, the camera will be installed to face ATV¡¯s forward hull five days before it departs the Station, probably by ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.

An inbuilt accelerometer will activate the battery-powered camera automatically, triggered by the acceleration of ATV¡¯s final engine firing back towards its homeworld.

In Pic: ESA¡¯s fifth and last Automated Transfer Vehicle, ATVGeorges Lema?tre,will deliver more than 2600 kg of dry cargo to the International Space Station. Packing the cargo requires careful planning and execution because it has to endure the rigours of launch this summer on an Ariane 5 from Europe¡¯s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

All items are placed in standard bags and strapped tightly to the racks. The complete module is rotated to allow the technicians to access the ¡®roof¡¯ and ¡®floor¡¯ compartments that become the walls. Astronauts in the Space Station can unload the bags in space from all sides as they float in weightlessness.

The technicians are wearing cleanroom suits to prevent contaminating the cargo and spaceship. Living in space weakens human immune systems and every precaution is taken to avoid taking harmful bacteria and viruses to the orbital complex.