The automated transfer vehicle (ATV) is one of the largest and most complex spacecraft ever to be built in Europe. Its definition and development process is influenced by the scale of this European space programme concerning impacts on development, the international industrial co-operation and the organisation of decision processes due to budgetary and political constraints. Therefore its definition and development process is organised by dedicated phases and corresponding reviews which ensure the coherence of the activities and design data exchange on all levels of the industrial organisation established for the ATV programme. Due to its accommodation function for other subsystems and its relevance to the overall system performance (mass, environment) the ATV spacecraft structure subsystem was significantly involved in definition of the system concept and system architecture. With the concurrent maturing of system requirements and the imposed development logic, particular challenge was posed to the development process of the ATV spacecraft structure subsystem. Complying with these challenging constraints a modular concept with segregation of single functions to individual structural modules was established, enabling not only the fulfilment of various system integration aspects and, as well, realisation of the European geographical return rule, but also allowing for flexible response to potential modifications of individual modules in the subsequent development phase.
Structure subsystem development in a complex European Space programme
Entwicklung einer Raumfahrzeugstruktur in einem komplexen Europäischen Raumfahrtprogramm
2000
8 Seiten, 12 Bilder, 3 Quellen
Conference paper
English
European space study programme
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