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Planetary News: Human Spaceflight (2006)Europe and Russia Join Forces to Study Advanced Crew Transportation SystemJapan May also ContributeBy A.J.S. RaylJune 28, 2006
The 17 member state governments of the European Space Agency (ESA) agreed last week to participate in a 2-year project with Russia to explore crew-transport vehicle designs for missions to the international space station (ISS) and the Moon. The decision was made during a meeting of ESA's ruling council at its headquarters in Paris, France on June 21 and 22. Japan, it was reported, may also eventually contribute to the program. The Advanced Crew Transportation System (ACTS) program evolves from Russia's Clipper [also spelled Kliper] program, a concept to design a winged vehicle that could carry 6 astronauts and/or cosmonauts to the ISS. The debut vehicle in the ACTS program, however, will be, at this point, a modified and enlarged Soyuz capsule design capable of going to the Moon and beyond. Teams at ESA and Roskosmos are working now to refine and develop the design. The first stirrings of this collaboration took place back in the spring of 2004, when the Russian federal space agency, now named Roskosmos, invited ESA to work on the development of the Clipper transportation system. ESA, in effect, took it under advisement. "We did then indeed reflect on the possibilities," said Manuel Valls, head of Policy and Plans Department in ESA's Directorate of Human Spaceflight, Microgravity, and Exploration Program. Not long after that, NASA announced it was developing its crew exploration vehicle (CEV) and ESA had discussions with the American space agency about that program. "We were told 'no,' which is fine. Perhaps we might have decided not to go with NASA, not only because the Russians had already approached us," said Valls. "In a way, it made our decision easier." Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain then began seriously considering the idea of joining forces with the Russians. As he put it to reporters in Paris last month: "I have been told by [NASA Administrator] Mike Griffin and [White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John] Marburger that the [NASA crew exploration vehicle] CEV is not for international cooperation. But if Europe is not involved in the next-generation transportation systems, we will stay forever a second-class partner."
By June 2005, the Europeans and Russians had established a joint vision for a crew transportation system, which was presented last December at ESA's meeting of the Council at the Ministerial level [a major agency gathering that takes place every 2 to 3 years]. "We presented a proposal to cooperate with Russia in the Clipper program," Valls told The Planetary Society in an interview yesterday. "For a number of reasons not really related in any way to the program, the Ministers did not approve or endorse our proposal, but directed us to further investigate and come back to the regular council meeting, which was held last month," he explains. During the last 6 months, the collaboration led to a change in design from the Clipper, a spacecraft designed for jaunts to the ISS, to a more Moon-friendly capsule type spacecraft. "Clipper is a nice concept, but it is more suitable for missions to low Earth orbit, like the ISS," says Valls. "Being a winged vehicle and coming in for reentry from low Earth orbit it [would do] what the shuttle does. But if you think of missions beyond low Earth orbit, to the Moon and beyond, you need to solve the issue of direct reentry from those long distances. Therefore, we agreed to explore with the Russians a vehicle concept able to safely conduct missions to the Moon and beyond, and reenter dynamically to Earth. We reached the conclusion that we should focus on a capsule type vehicle as opposed to a winged vehicle. Accordingly, the vehicle architecture of the ACTS vehicle is different from the Clipper." The ESA Council adopted the resolution, which, in essence, launched the ACTS program. Led by France and Germany, the ESA governments agreed to invest some 15 million euros (about $19 million) on the 2-year effort with Russia to sort out who does what. "We are now entering a phase of working with the Russians where we will establish a preliminary design of the vehicle, establish all the legal framework for the operation, delineate the work share for the parties, and outline the aspects of development," said Valls. Although the Japanese are not officially onboard yet, JAXA, the Japanese space agency, previously indicated that if Europe joined Russia in the program, it would do likewise, according to Daniel Sacotte, ESA director of the Human Spaceflight, Microgravity, and Exploration program. "There have been no final decisions on the matter, but on the horizon, we think ultimately there will be Europeans, Russians, and Japanese working on this vehicle," Valls added yesterday. By 2008, the partners – each of which will be financing their own contributions -- will report back to the ESA ministers, at which time a decision will be made about moving the program forward, and the partners will know whether all sides can work together in their respective roles.
The program participants have pretty much settled on going with 2 stages, "although nothing at this stage is definitive," said Valls. "Both the Russians and we think that it is only prudent, and most efficient and effective, to go with 2 stages and not one. The 1-stage has been done already with Saturn V [and Apollo]. To do that now "would entail the development of quite a new launcher and that will take time and money like hell, if I may say." Going with 2 stages right now is "far more efficient and makes sense, too," said Valls, "because we could use – and this is our intention – existing launch vehicles or launch vehicles with minimal development." There is a real need, Valls noted, for another crew transportation system beyond NASA's CEV. "With the shuttle situation, had it not been for Soyuz, the ISS would have been de-orbited," he said. "We cannot afford that – investing billions if not trillions over the next however many decades, and going to the Moon, and doing this and that, and be dependent on only one transportation system." That reality, in fact, played "a most important part" in ESA's making the decision to unite with the Russians, "because in the end the world will need at least a redundant crew transportation system," Valls said. "We know the USA is doing the CEV, and we need to have another one, so we will have 2, which will be compatible to the extent required, but they do not necessarily have to be the same. The space community at large cannot think of doing any exploration with only one crew transportation system." It has not yet been determined how to implement the design once it's completed, whether, for example, a fleet of spacecraft would be built for the partners to use, or whether Europe and Russia and Japan would acquire the respective parts from the other partners and build their own spacecraft, but that will certainly be a major topic of discussion, Valls said. In coming weeks, the Russian space agency, Roskosmos, will select a Russian prime contractor for the ACTS studies while Europe puts together its consortium to interface with the Russian company, according to Sacotte. Russia's Soyuz rocket is currently being modified for launch from ESA's Guiana Space Center, in French Guiana, for a first launch slated in late 2008, although that vehicle is designed to carry satellites not astronauts. An ACTS agreement calls for both the French Guiana site and Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to be launch bases for future manned ACTS missions. |
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