{"id":16560,"date":"2015-02-13T19:31:15","date_gmt":"2015-02-13T11:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/engineers-to-assess-reusability-of-europes-wingless-space-plane\/"},"modified":"2015-02-13T19:31:15","modified_gmt":"2015-02-13T11:31:15","slug":"engineers-to-assess-reusability-of-europes-wingless-space-plane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/engineers-to-assess-reusability-of-europes-wingless-space-plane\/","title":{"rendered":"Engineers to assess reusability of Europe\u2019s wingless space plane"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Europe's
Europe\u2019s IXV re-entry demonstrator is lifted out of the Pacific Ocean onto the Nos Aries recovery ship after Wednesday\u2019s test flight. Credit: ESA\u2013Tommaso Javidi, 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Back on Earth after a whirlwind journey 20,000 miles around the world, an experimental re-entry demonstrator is on the way to Europe for post-flight inspections aimed at gathering design inputs for future reusable space vehicles.<\/p>\n

The spacecraft splashed down in the equatorial Pacific Ocean west of the Galapagos Islands after a 100-minute test flight Wednesday. Four airbags inflated to keep the space plane from sinking as divers deployed from an Italian recovery vessel in Zodiac boats speeding toward the splashdown site.<\/p>\n

A few hours later, a crane on the Nos Aries ship lifted the 16-foot-long (5-meter) Intermediate Experimental Vehicle from the ocean and placed it on the vessel\u2019s deck.<\/p>\n

The IXV launched from the European-run spaceport in French Guiana aboard a Vega rocket at 1340 GMT (8:40 a.m. EST) and reached a maximum altitude of 256 miles (413 kilometers) before descending back into Earth\u2019s atmosphere at nearly 16,800 mph (7.5 kilometers per second), using four rear-mounted rocket thrusters and two maneuvering flaps to steer toward its target landing zone.<\/p>\n

Officials said the craft had a nearly on-target splashdown after using aerodynamic resistance, S-turn banking maneuvers and a series of parachutes to slow from hypersonic speed to a gentle landing velocity of about 15 mph (7 meters per second).<\/p>\n

Technicians clad in protective hazardous material suits from the European Space Agency and Thales Alenia Space, which built the IXV re-entry demonstrator, planned to decontaminate the spacecraft\u2019s hydrazine fuel tank after the recovery operation.<\/p>\n

The Nos Aries is sailing back to port in Genoa, Italy, where it is due to arrive in March. The IXV will be transported from Genoa to an ESA test center in the Netherlands, where engineers will disassemble the spacecraft and see how it weathered the brief test flight.<\/p>\n

The ship will traverse the Panama Canal, where it will drop off most of the recovery team to fly back to Europe.<\/p>\n

Before it splashed down, the IXV radioed recorded data from more than 300 sensors on the spacecraft to an antenna on the Nos Aries ship. With the successful recovery of the spacecraft, engineers can physically examine its condition.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom Genoa, the IXV will be transported to the ESTEC site in Holland at Noordwijk, where it will be stored,\u201d said Roberto Provera, director of human spaceflight and transportation programs at Thales Alenia Space. \u201cBefore storage, we will analyze all the results. We will have the data recorded on-board, and we will have to analyze the materials on the vehicle to have a first look at the various components to see how they reacted to the flight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A member of the IXV recovery team wearing a protective suit helps guide the spacecraft on to the deck of the Nos Aries recovery ship. Credit: ESA\u2013Tommaso Javidi, 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Giorgio Tumino, ESA\u2019s IXV program manager, said in an interview before the flight that one of the objectives is to evaluate the reusability of critical parts of the spacecraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the mission objectives, which is an important one, is to assess the reusability of the avionics, the structural components, and so on,\u201d Tumino said. \u201cWe want to monitor the environment inside and outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IXV \u2014 a lifting body design \u2014 was expected to encounter temperatures near 3,100 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1,700 degrees Celsius) during the hottest part of re-entry. The craft\u2019s nose and flaps saw the most extreme temperatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe IXV landing \u2014 the advantage of this is that we had a far more accurate re-entry than we had with a capsule, and it also means that we\u2019re moving a step toward the reutilization of re-entry bodies,\u201d said Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA\u2019s director general. \u201cThat is something that\u2019s vital for the future of space activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IXV program\u2019s budget was 150 million euros \u2014 around $170 million. The cost of the Vega launcher \u2014 around 40 million euros ($45 million) \u2014 is counted separately. Italy led the development of both the IXV and the Vega programs.<\/p>\n

The initial results from Wednesday\u2019s test flight will be announced in the second quarter of this year, officials said.<\/p>\n

Lessons learned from the IXV test flight will feed into the design of a future European space plane.<\/p>\n

ESA member states approved limited funding for the Program for Reusable In-orbit Demonstrator for Europe, or PRIDE, at a ministerial-level meeting in December.<\/p>\n

The budget supports design studies and early definition of the PRIDE space plane, which is envisioned to roughly the same size and shape as the IXV testbed flown Wednesday. It will also blast off on Europe\u2019s Vega rocket, but the future craft will enter Earth orbit, perform a mission, then return to Earth for landing on a runway.<\/p>\n

But the program needs a boost in funding in coming years to keep to a schedule for a first flight by 2020.<\/p>\n

\"The
The IXV floats in the Pacific Ocean awaiting recovery Wednesday. Credit: ESA\u2013Tommaso Javidi, 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cRe-entry form low Earth orbit is key for a lot of applications in space transportation, from cargo to crew transportation, to servicing the space station, to Earth observation, to have quick access to orbit and quick retrieval for satellite servicing,\u201d Provera said. \u201cWe dream of a space plane in the future. It will take some time to develop, but I think with this flight we could make a break on this path.<\/p>\n

\u201cPRIDE will be the second step,\u201d Provera said. \u201cI think there are many other technologies to prove before going for an operational system, like with orbital maneuver capabilities, precise landing, and so on \u2026 Hopefully, we will have it flying in three or four years, so the lessons learned from IXV will not be lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IXV flight could also help engineers working on concepts for reusable launcher stages that fly back back to Earth after completing their missions.<\/p>\n

The lifting body\u2019s maneuvering systems \u2014 thrusters and flaps \u2014 are derived from technologies used on Europe\u2019s Ariane 5 and Vega launchers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have built a lot on our launcher technology,\u201d Tumino said. \u201ct was very important because we could also use the mission to create reusable launcher technology, and the thruster is one of these technologies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe flaps are the second thing we have inherited from our launcher technologies,\u201d Tumino said. \u201cThese are electromechanical actuators, the same actuators used on Vega for the thrust vector control to steer the nozzle. We had to do some modification, but its basically 80 to 90 percent the same technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IXV is blanketed in black ceramic thermal protection panels bolted to the IXV\u2019s belly, and cork-based and silicon-based light-colored materials on the spacecraft\u2019s top and sides.<\/p>\n

\"Artist's
Artist\u2019s concept of a mission with ESA\u2019s planned PRIDE space plane. Credit: ESA-J. Huart, 2012<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIf you need to return to the ground, you need all of what we are doing with IXV,\u201d Tumino said. \u201cI\u2019m talking about in Europe \u2014 the U.S. has had this basic know-how for years \u2026 Re-entry vehicles and launchers operate in air, so they use similiar disciplines. For example, aerodynamics and aerothermal dynamics in launchers and re-entry systems is the same, thermal protection is a common problem, and guidance navigation and control is a common problem, which is different from satellites orbiting in space having nothing to do with the atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Europe\u2019s next-generation launcher \u2014 the Ariane 6 \u2014 is an expendable rocket. But two ESA member states \u2014 France and Germany \u2014 are working on future launcher concepts that could be reusable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe IXV return demonstration is a fundamental element on any future activity that Europe might undertake to bring back launcher stages to the ground,\u201d Tumino said. \u201cWhether this is a first stage or an upper stage, we will see because the discussion is just starting. Even for a lower stage, there is an extreme need to have thermal protection.\u201d<\/p>\n

European space officials are often asked about their reusable rocket plans after SpaceX \u2014 the U.S. launch company founded by Elon Musk \u2014 began experimenting with unprecedented flyback maneuvers in a bid to land a booster stage at sea.<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s efforts are widely viewed to be responsible for renewed talks of the benefits \u2014 and, as many competitors often point out, the treacherous economics \u2014 of a reusable launcher.<\/p>\n

Musk has argued that recycling rocket stages only makes sense if the reuse is \u201crapid and complete,\u201d offering a vision for launchers that can be landed, refueled and flown again.<\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Europe\u2019s IXV re-entry demonstrator is lifted out of the Pacific Ocean onto the Nos Aries recovery ship after Wednesday\u2019s test flight. Credit: ESA\u2013Tommaso Javidi, 2015 Back on Earth after a whirlwind journey 20,000 miles around the world, an experimental re-entry demonstrator is on the way to Europe for post-flight inspections aimed at gathering design inputs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[831,4151,4152,4153,1311,4154],"class_list":["post-16560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-european-space-agency","tag-ixv","tag-nos-aries","tag-pride","tag-vega","tag-vv04"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16560"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16560\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}