Johannes Kepler ATV

This article is about the cargo spacecraft. For the space telescope, see Kepler (spacecraft).

Johannes Kepler (ATV-002)

Johannes Kepler (ATV-002) Mission Patch
Type	ATV
Organisation	ESA
Space station	ISS
Contractors	Astrium (prime), Thales Alenia Space, Arianespace (LSP)
Carrier Rocket	Ariane 5ES
Launch site	Kourou ELA-3
Launch date	16 February 2011 21:51 GMT
COSPAR ID	2011-007A
SATCAT №	37368
Docking
Docking port	Zvezda Aft
Docking date	February 24, 2011, 15:59:19 UTC
Undocking date	June 20, 2011
Orbit
Regime	LEO
Inclination	51.6°
Mass
Total	20,050 kg (44,200 lb)

The Johannes Kepler ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 002 (ATV-002), was an unmanned cargo spacecraft designed to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). It was launched on 16 February 2011 by the European Space Agency (ESA). Johannes Kepler carried propellant, air and dry cargo weighing over 7,000 kilograms (15,000 lb), and had a total mass of over 20,000 kilograms (44,000 lb), making it, at the time, the heaviest payload launched by the ESA. The spacecraft was named after the 17th-century German astronomer Johannes Kepler.

Johannes Kepler was the second ATV cargo resupply vehicle to be launched, following the Jules Verne mission of 2008. Johannes Kepler carried around five tonnes more cargo than Russia's Progress-M resupply spacecraft, and about 1.5 tonnes more than the Japanese HTV. 10,000 kg of fuel was used to change ISS's altitude from 350 to 400 km.

Many of the supplies aboard the ATV were used for the Space Shuttle mission STS-133 and the ISS Expedition 26. A Reentry Breakup Recorder was placed aboard before the ATV's separation on 20 June 2011. Johannes Kepler performed a destructive re-entry on 21 June 2011, with its remains impacting the Pacific Ocean.

Spacecraft

Johannes Kepler in orbit, prior to its rendezvous with the ISS.

Johannes Kepler consisted of two sections: the Propulsion Module, with four main engines and 28 smaller maneuvering thrusters, and the Integrated Cargo Carrier, which attached directly to the ISS and could hold up to eight standard payload racks. The four solar wings of the spacecraft provided up to 4,800 watts of electrical power to its rechargeable batteries.

The ATV's rendezvous and docking system mounted a telegoniometer, which functioned as a radar system, and two videometers, which fired laser pulses at cube-shaped reflectors on the ISS' Zvezda service module for range detection. The nose of the spacecraft contained rendezvous sensors and Russian docking equipment, as well as eight maneuvering thrusters to complement the propulsion module.^{[citation needed]}

Specifications

Diameter at widest point	4.5 metres (15 ft)
Length (probe retracted)	9.8 metres (32 ft)
Spacecraft mass (with fluids loaded)	20,010 kilograms (44,100 lb)
Deployed solar array width	22.3 metres (73 ft)

Mission payload

Cargo	Mass
ISS reboost/attitude control propellants	4,534 kilograms (10,000 lb)
ISS refuel propellant	850 kilograms (1,900 lb)
Oxygen gas	100 kilograms (220 lb)
Water	0 kilograms (0 lb)
Dry cargo (food, clothes, equipment)	1,600 kilograms (3,500 lb)
Total	7,084 kilograms (15,620 lb)

Source: NASA

GeoFlow II

Johannes Kepler delivered the GeoFlow II hydrodynamics experiment container to the ISS. This experiment was designed to observe liquid movements in microgravity, and compare them with computer simulations, thus helping scientists to understand convection currents within the Earth’s mantle.

Mission summary

Launch

Johannes Kepler's launch as seen from the ISS. The ATV is the thin white plume rising from the Earth in the center of the image.

On 16 February 2011 UTC, Johannes Kepler was launched on an Ariane 5ES rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. The launch was conducted by Arianespace on behalf of the ESA.

The first launch attempt, on 15 February 2011, was halted four minutes before lift-off, due to an erroneous signal from one of the rocket's fuel tanks.

Docking

Johannes Kepler approaches the ISS on 24 February 2011.

Johannes Kepler ATV prepares to dock with the Zvezda module of the ISS.

Docking with the ISS was completed on 24 February 2011 at 15:59 UTC, after a 15-minute delay. The spacecraft traveled over eight days to catch up with the space station, and arrived at the aft port of the station's Zvezda service module. During the rendezvous operations, ATV-2 traveled a total of 2.5 million miles. The docking occurred as ATV-2 and the ISS flew over the coast of Liberia in western Africa. Hooks and latches engaged a few minutes later to firmly attach ATV-2 to the ISS.

The Johannes Kepler mission marked the first time European astronauts were on board the International Space Station during an ATV mission, with Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli welcoming the ATV's arrival. ESA astronaut Roberto Vittori was also aboard the ISS at the same time as the ATV, having arrived on Space Shuttle Endeavour on the STS-134 mission in May 2011.

ISS altitude Increase

Close-up view of Johannes Kepler ATV (top), photographed from the departing Space Shuttle Discovery on 7 March 2011.

ATV-2 was used to change ISS's standard altitude from about 350 kilometers (220 statute miles) to 400 km (248 miles). The higher altitude has lower atmospheric drag, which reduces the propellant needed to maintain altitude from 6800 kg (19,000 pounds) a year to roughly 3630 kg (8,000 pounds), depending on atmospheric conditions. J. Kepler used about 10,000 pounds (4,500 kilograms) of rocket fuel to accomplish this change.

This change was done incrementally over several months. An example of such a burn occurred 18 March 2011, the ATV's Orbit Control System (OCS) thrusters were used to re-boost the orbit of the ISS. The engines were started at 06:00:00 GMT, and shut down at 06:14:42. The maneuver increased the altitude of the space station by 3.9 kilometres (2.4 mi).

End of mission and deorbit

On 20 June 2011, Johannes Kepler undocked from the ISS. At 18:30 UTC (20:30 CEST) that same day, while preparing to deorbit, the ATV was forced to conduct a debris-avoidance maneuver, using some of its remaining fuel to move into a safe orbit after NASA warned of a potential collision with orbital debris. On 21 June 2011, the ATV deorbited, burning up in the atmosphere over the South Pacific Ocean at around 22:44 CET.

ATV missions

Designation	Name	Launch date	ISS docking date	Re-entry date	Sources
ATV-001	Jules Verne	9 March 2008	3 April 2008	29 September 2008
ATV-002	Johannes Kepler	16 February 2011	24 February 2011	21 June 2011
ATV-003	Edoardo Amaldi	23 March 2012	28 March 2012	4 October 2012
ATV-004	Albert Einstein	5 June 2013	15 June 2013	15 October 2013
ATV-005	Georges Lemaître	12 April 2014	N/A	N/A

See also

• H-II Transfer Vehicle
• Progress spacecraft
• List of unmanned spaceflights to the ISS

External links

• ESA - ATV
• ESA - ATV blog
• Mission Overview Video
• Launch Kit Flight 200 Ariane 5ES ATV Johannes Kepler
• [http://www.space.com/10884-huge-european-spaceship-launches.html

Huge European Cargo Ship Launches Toward Space Station]