IXV - Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle, AVUM (orbital)- Vega(VV04)- Kourou ZLV - 11.02.2015 13:40UT

[Космос-3794]

Fabrizi also signed a contract with Thales Alenia Space Italy for the Intermediate Experimental Vehicle (IXV), a 5-meter-long, 1,800-kilogram winged vehicle scheduled to test atmospheric re-entry technologies following a launch aboard Europe's Vega rocket in 2012 or 2013. The contract is valued at 39.4 million euros to cover preliminary IXV work for 18 months, Fabrizi said.

http://www.spacenews.com/civil/2009-12-18esa-signs-new-contracts-worth-over-500-million-euros.html

IXV (Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle) is a lifting-body re-entry experiment, which is intended to validate re-entry technologies for future European reusable launchers.

IXV is a lifting reentry body, with its shape resulting from the set of design requirements, including the need to maximise the internal volume for carrying experiments. The goal is to get the most out of the vehicle while guaranteeing the mass (limited by Vega's capacity) and centre-of-gravity location. The primary objectives of the IXV project can be grouped into three categories: reentry system demonstration, technology experimentation and technology validation.

http://space.skyrocket.de/index_frame.htm?http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/ixv.htm

http://www.esa.int/esapub/bulletin/bulletin128/bul128h_tumino.pdf

[Salo]

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Launchers_Home/SEMOU1KOXDG_0.html

New milestone in IXV development
 
15 September 2010
Today, ESA held the first IXV Industrial Workshop. Thales Alenia Space and its main industrial partners presented the detailed design of ESA's Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle. The workshop was hosted by Dassault Aviation in Saint Cloud, France.
 
This was the first opportunity for industry to present the hardware development activities that have been undertaken to support the proposed design solutions. During the event, technical and programmatic achievements in the IXV project were shared, and short- and long-term perspectives and future applications were discussed.

"It is a pleasure to see the industry and the research organisations involved in the IXV development so motivated to work on a reentry flight module. This industrial momentum is necessary to accomplish such a mission successfully and timely, while preparing for future challenges together," said Antonio Fabrizi, ESA Director of Launchers.
 


Model of the cold structure subsystem
Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle
 
With the aim of placing Europe among the world's space players in the strategic area of atmospheric reentry, several studies on experimental vehicle concepts and improvements of critical reentry technologies have paved the way for the flight of an experimental craft.

The Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV), under ESA's Future Launchers Preparatory Programme (FLPP), is the step forward from the successful Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator flight in 1998, establishing Europe's role in this field.

The IXV project objectives are the design, development, manufacture and ground and flight verification of an autonomous European lifting and aerodynamically controlled reentry system, which is highly flexible and manoeuvrable. Among the critical technologies of interest, special attention has been paid to:

 * advanced instrumentation for aerodynamics and aerothermodynamics
 * thermal protection and hot-structure solutions
 * guidance, navigation and flight control through a combination of thrusters and aerodynamic flaps

   
'Floatable balloon'
   
After being launched into space, IXV will return to Earth as if from a low-orbit mission, testing brand-new European atmospheric reentry technologies during its hypersonic and supersonic flight phases.

IXV is scheduled for launch in 2013 on Vega, Europe's new small launcher, as part of the 'VERTA' (Vega Research and Technology Accompaniment) programme. After reentering Earth's atmosphere and being slowed by friction from 7.5 km/s, it will descend by parachute and land in the Pacific Ocean to await recovery and analysis.

As IXV flies through Earth's atmosphere, its two-hour mission will include a set of programmed manoeuvres. This will allow scientists and engineers to test the performances of critical technologies.

The project is now well under way, with the Critical Design Review to be completed by the end of 2010, which will allow for the start of manufacturing in 2011, the verification and qualification process in 2012 and the final assembly and integration in 2013.

"The IXV programme is creating a robust European industrial community, which is motivated and committed to the mission's success," said Giorgio Tumino, IXV Project Manager.

"The mission will consolidate European knowhow in atmospheric reentry with limited risk and at affordable cost."

"It may open the opportunity for future applications such as unmanned space vehicles for in-orbit monitoring and satellite servicing."

[Salo]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1106/10ixv/

ESA lifting body entry vehicle on the cusp of final approval
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: June 10, 2011

PARIS -- The European Space Agency should formally approve this summer the construction of an Italian-led demonstrator that will launch into space on a rocket, fly back to Earth like an airplane and parachute into the Pacific Ocean, according to the mission's project manager.


Artist's concept of the Intermediate Experimental Vehicle plunging back to Earth throught the atmosphere. Credit: ESA
 
The Intermediate Experimental Vehicle is on track to blast off on a Vega rocket in late 2013, speed around the Earth at a peak altitude of nearly 300 miles, then drop fr om space and fly back to Earth with the help of aerodynamic flaps and a parachute.

Giorgio Tumino, the IXV project manager at ESA, said the craft passed its final critical design review in May. Senior ESA officials are now firming up the spacecraft's cost before signing a contract with Thales Alenia Space of Italy to build the vehicle.

Formal approval for the contract signature should come fr om an industry planning committee meeting at the end of June, Tumino said in an interview.

"We are in quite an advanced stage of the program," Tumino said. "It's not paper, but it's reality. There is an internal European process for the approval of all the activities. We should be able to sign the actual contract by the end of this month."

Sandrine Bielecki, a Thales spokesperson, said the company signed an agreement to be the IXV's prime contractor in 2009. Individual contracts for design work and hardware production are handled separately.

After ESA and Thales sign a final production contract, there is a 27-month schedule planned to manufacture parts, build the spacecraft and test it before shipping the vehicle to the launch site in Kourou French Guiana.

The total cost of the mission is about 100 million euros, or about $143 million.

ESA has the money to build the spacecraft, but funding for Vega launcher will only come at the agency's next meeting of member states' ministers in late 2012. If ESA signs a launch contract then, IXV could be ready to fly in the fourth quarter of 2013, Tumino said.

"The objective now is to place the contract, build the vehicle and qualify it, then have it ready to be shipped to Kourou," Tumino said. "We really are now going to procure the contract for all the pieces necessary to run the mission. Now what we are missing at the next Ministerial [Council] is only the Vega launcher. We'll have all the pieces there to meet the launcher."

Construction should begin in September, according to Tumino.

The IXV program is emerging from a reorganization at the last Ministerial Council meeting in 2008. Italy increased their financial commitment to the project, and Thales Alenia Space of Italy was appointed prime contractor. An industrial consortium of EADS Astrium and Finmeccanica previously held the position.

The reorganization "induced some delays" as Thales Alenia Space got up to speed on the program, but now the IXV is ready to enter the production phase, according to Tumino.

Its mission will last just a few hours, but the IXV is a big step for Europe. The demo flight will not go into orbit, but the craft is a prototype for future vehicles that could service the International Space Station, land on other planets, or carry people to orbit.

The IXV mission builds on years of ESA development, including the Hermes space plane program shelved by Europe in 1992. Hermes was supposed to be Europe's version of the space shuttle, conceived as a mostly reusable ship able to carry people back forth to orbit.


Artist's concept of ESA's Hermes space plane. Credit: ESA
 
But no Hermes shuttle was ever built despite considerable technological developments in the program. ESA's atmospheric re-entry demonstrator mission in 1998 proved out the Hermes flight control algorithms, but the IXV will fly with more a more advanced heat shield and working aerosurfaces. And it's shaped more like Hermes.

The mission also recycles ESA's research for the NASA-led X-38 crew return vehicle, a lifeboat for the space station that was scrapped in the last decade.

The IXV will fly with approximately 28 advanced ceramic heat shield tiles on its belly, while white ablative material will insulate the top of the vehicle during entry.

With no wings and a peculiar blunt cigar shape, the IXV won't land on a runway like the space shuttle. Instead, the 16-foot-long ship will gently fall into the Pacific Ocean under a parachute, wh ere it will be retrieved by the Italian Navy or a commercial vessel. There is no landing gear.

But even without wings, the IXV is shaped as a lifting body, meaning it can maneuver in the atmosphere through a series of roll reversals. Movements of two electromechanical body flaps at the rear of the vehicle will steer the IXV during entry.

It has a lift-over-drag radio of 0.7, giving the IXV "more controllability during flight, more maneuverability, and eventually a precision landing," Tumino said.

The craft's shape means it flies through the atmosphere instead of falling like a capsule.

Engineers are targeting an error ellipse of about 3 miles on the IXV mission, but follow-on vehicles could land with even more precision.

"This is a demonstration mission. We will be launching from Kourou with a Vega launcher, and we have a set of ground segment stations which will support the mission," Tumino said. "Wh ere the vehicle meets the atmosphere, the conditions will be equivalent to a return mission from low Earth orbit, so basically a 7.5 kilometers per second [16,777 mph] entry speed, so that we can experience all the key environmental features of such a re-entry mission."

The craft's nose will pitch up 40 degrees during re-entry, and it will bleed off speed in a series of roll maneuvers like the space shuttle.

Once officials wrap up contract negotiations this summer, some of their attention will turn to studying applications for the technology to be tested by the IXV. Tumino said the analysis will help prepare a proposal to ESA member states for the continuation of the program after the 2013 demo flight.

"We see opportunities and the possibility to go into orbit and perform ground landings, so to have a retrievable and reusable system," Tumino said. "It's not the space shuttle, which has a huge cost because it's a huge system. It would have to be contained in cost so it would be affordable for Europe to pursue."

[Salo]

http://cybersecurity.ru/space/126112.html

Европа к 2013 году создаст беспилотный космический корабль
(22:34) 22.06.2011

   
Европейское космическое агентство сегодня заявило, что планирует запустить через два года собственный беспилотный суборбитальный космический корабль, в задачи которого войдет тестирование широкого спектра технологий, запланированных к использованию в будущих аппаратах многоразового использования, способных многократно взлетать в космос и садиться на космодром.

Изначально ЕКА планировало, что новый корабль Intermediate Experimental Vehicle (IXV) будет запущен на орбиту для демонстрации точных технологий посадки на землю за счет использования парашютов и воздушных подушек, однако позже ведомство решило создать более комплексную модель, которая сможет не только спускаться из космоса, но и взлетать.

Сейчас европейское космическое ведомство планирует, что выводить на суборбитальную траекторию корабль будет легкая европейская ракета Вега, которая будет стартовать с космодрома Куру в Южной Америке. После этого IXV будет собственными силами сходить с орбиты и совершать посадку. Ожидается, что вес аппарата без учета полезной нагрузки и астронавтов составит 2 тонны, а рабочая высота - до 450 километров. Входить в плотные слои атмосферы IXV будет на скорости около 7,5 км/сек.

Во время первых полетов корабль будет собирать значительные объемы информации, связанные со сверхзвуковой скоростью полета и особенностями орбитальных маневров. В ЕКА говорят, что намерены создать для аппарата не имеющие аналогов двигатели и аэродинамическое покрытие.

Первая версия аппарата будет создана в расчете на посадку при помощи парашюта, спускаться она будет в Тихий океан, где ее будут ожидать команды спасателей.

Критики данной европейской разработки говорят, что она бесперспективна, так как ВВС США уже фактически имеют похожий роботизированный аппарат X-37B, который ранее побывал в космосе и успешно приземлился. В свою очередь концепция с посадкой в Тихом океане практически полностью повторяет разработку компании SpaceX, которая также уже была испытана.



Однако в ЕКА говорят, что их аппарат не похож ни на первый, ни на второй продукты, так как использует оригинальную систему вывода в космос. IXV при старте с земли работает с разгонным блоком, напоминающим первую ступень ракеты. В отличии от этой концепции X-37B выводится при помощи полномасштабной ракеты-носителя, капсула Dragon от SpaceX также требует ракеты-носителя.

Более того европейский подъемный блок может обладать различной силой тяги, что позволит выводить IXV с различной массой. Сам же IXV может быть совместим с МКС, что позволит ему доставлять в будущем астронавтов и грузы на станцию, работая в паре с российскими "Прогрессами" и европейскими ATV.

[ZOOR]

http://cybersecurity.ru/space/126112.html

Европа к 2013 году создаст беспилотный космический корабль[/size]
Сейчас европейское космическое ведомство планирует, что выводить на суборбитальную траекторию корабль будет легкая европейская ракета Вега, которая будет стартовать с космодрома Куру в Южной Америке. После этого IXV будет собственными силами сходить с орбиты и совершать посадку. Ожидается, что вес аппарата без учета полезной нагрузки и астронавтов составит 2 тонны, а рабочая высота - до 450 километров. Входить в плотные слои атмосферы IXV будет на скорости около 7,5 км/сек.

А почему суборбитальную?

Vega is compatible with payload masses ranging from 300 kg to 2500 kg, depending on the type and altitude of the orbit required by the customers. The benchmark is for 1500 kg into a 700 km-altitude polar orbit.

http://download.esa.int/docs/launchers/Vega_5_HQ_A4.pdf

[Космос-3794]

А почему суборбитальную?

Потому что вполне отвечает всем требованиям эксперимента, в том числе:

It provides a velocity at the entry gate equal to 7450 m/s and a flight path angle of -1.6°, fully representative of a re-entry from lowearth-orbit (LEO) missions.

http://www.congrex.nl/08m35/papers/IAC-08.D2.6.1.pdf

Хотя первоначально планировалось:

IXV will be delivered into an orbit of 180 x 307.2 km, where Vega's upper stage will fire above the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Chile to trigger reentry.

http://www.esa.int/esapub/bulletin/bulletin128/bul128h_tumino.pdf

[SpaceR]

http://cybersecurity.ru/space/126112.html

Европа к 2013 году создаст беспилотный космический корабль[/size]
. . .

Ой, какая ж там у них бредятина в последних трёх абзацах...  

Особенно доставило наличие на IXV астронавтов:

вес аппарата без учета полезной нагрузки и астронавтов составит 2 тонны,

[Salo]

http://www.popmech.ru/article/10197-novosti-kosmonavtiki/

20 декабря
ESA сообщает, что работа над космическим аппаратом многоразового использования IXV будет продолжена. Планируется, что испытательный полет будет совершен в 2014 г. Ракета-носитель «Вега» (которая, к слову, в космос еще не летала — ее первый полет запланирован на 2012 г.) поднимет аппарат на высоту 450 км, после чего он войдет в плотные слои атмосферы и начнет снижение. При спуске скорость IXV достигнет 7,5 км/с, что позволит реалистично смоделировать возвращение аппарата с околоземной орбиты. После входа в плотные слои аппарат откроет парашют и опустится в океан, где его подберут. Проектированием и производством космического корабля занимается компания Thales Alenia Space.

[Salo]

Старая статья в копилку:
http://www.esa.int/esapub/bulletin/bulletin128/bul128h_tumino.pdf

[Salo]

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2013/08/31/video-report-test-esas-ixv-system/#more-49840

A Video Report on Test of ESA's IXV System


Posted by Doug Messier
on August 31, 2013, at 7:24 am in News

Description: Europe's newest spacecraft, the IXV, or Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle, has moved a step closer to its planned launch in 2014.

The craft completed a pre-launch test off the coast of Sardinia, which involved it being dropped into the Mediterranean fr om a height of 3,000 metres.

For the most part the vehicle performed perfectly during the test, with parachutes deploying as expected. However, just after splashdown a problem arose, as the inflatable devices which should add support to the buoyant IXV once it is in the water had failed to inflate.

It was a dramatic and initially confusing result, but after some head-scratching the engineers involved in the test began to understand what had happened. They believed that the balloons had not inflated because the setting for the sensors that detect the impact with the water was too high. So, splashdown was quite simply a little too gentle.

IXV Programme Manager for ESA, Giorgio Tumino explained: "There has been a lot of discussion around this, because we have to differentiate the shock induced by the impact with the water from the shock that could be induced by wind gusts to the parachute, because these are very similar levels in terms of shock and we have to differentiate those levels. We had set these thresholds quite high, and while my impression, my visual impression of what happened was that the landing was very soft because the parachute is really working fine, so probably the impact loads were much lower than what we expected."

Roberto Angelini from Thales Alenia Space was happy with the test overall: "We demonstrated what we wanted to demonstrate; free fall condition initially, you see the parachute compartment wh ere we had the extraction of the parachute system. The slings of the parachute that are covered by a thermal protection system to sustain the heat of the re-entry, we wanted to test how this thing was going to be broken. And you see here the flotation devices that are activated right after the splashdown itself. Now, if there is something we will have to fix coming out from the post review board etc we will implement it in the flight hardware."

A post-flight review confirmed Tumino's theory. The impact loads during splashdown were lower than expected – the computers recorded an impact deceleration of 29.1 m/s2, and the threshold for the flotation of the balloons was set at 30 m/s2

A lot is riding on the IXV prototype, as it represents a new chapter in space flight technology for the European Space Agency.

The idea is to have an affordable, small spacecraft that can enter near-Earth orbit and then land in a targeted zone. This test was just one step in that development. In 2014 the IXV will be launched into space on board a Vega rocket and then re-enter the atmosphere, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

[Salo]

Пуск в ноябре.

[Andrey Samoilov]

Пишут, что тестовый запуск в октябре 2014-го

http://www.spacenews.com/article/launch-report/39933european-re-entry-experiment-progresses-toward-planned-october-launch

Europe's first atmospheric re-entry vehicle in 16 years is scheduled to complete integration here in May and then to be sent for vibration and acoustic testing before arriving at Europe's French Guiana spaceport for a planned October launch.

The Intermediate Experimental Vehicle, IXV, is designed to separate from Europe's Vega small-satellite launcher at an altitude of 320 kilometers. The vehicle will reach an apogee of some 412 kilometers and follow a low-inclination trajectory, 5 degrees relative to the equator, on its way to a re-entry and parachute-softened splashdown in the South Pacific.

[frigate]

А мог бы быть и КЛИППЕР!

High resolution image 3,500px × 2,330px (2MB)

[PIN]

Много фото с приемки корабля, который пойдет принимать телеметрию и вылавливать аппарат + по подготовке аппарата к отправке заказчику. http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/06

[Salo]

http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/07/Unboxing_IXV

Unboxing IXV


(6.67 MB)                         
           
Details

[/li]
• Title Unboxing IXV
• Released 02/07/2014 8:25 am
• Copyright ESA–Anneke Le Floc'h
• Description
  The moment when ESA's IXV Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle is removed from its protective container, safely inside the cleanroom environment of the Agency's Technical Centre.
  IXV's sleek lifting body hull gives a clue to its purpose: this November it will be launched 320 km into space on top of a Vega rocket, climbing up to 420 km before beginning a long glide back through the atmosphere.
  In the process, IXV will gather data on reentry conditions to help guide the design of future spaceplanes.
  IXV arrived at ESTEC  in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, last week.
  The spaceplane will now undergo a rigorous test campaign to confirm it is ready for flight. ESA's centre is the largest satellite testing facility in Europe, with everything needed to recreate every aspect of the launch and space environment under one air-conditioned roof.
  

[Salo]

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=6114.msg1221988#msg1221988

Jester пишет:
VV04 with IXV currently tracking 8th of November.

[Salo]

ESA Prepares to Launch Experimental Space Plane             
Posted by Doug Messier
on July 19, 2014, at 7:24 am in News
                          

Engineers conduct final tests on ESA's Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV). (Credit: ESA)
 
PARIS (ESA PR) — All eyes are on ESA's spaceplane to showcase reentry technologies after its unconventional launch on a Vega rocket this November.
Instead of heading north into a polar orbit – as on previous flights – Vega will head eastwards to release the spaceplane into a suborbital path reaching all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
Engineers are forging ahead with the final tests on ESA's Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle, IXV, to check that it can withstand the demanding conditions from liftoff to separation from Vega.
Launched in early November, IXV will flight test the technologies and critical systems for Europe's future automated reentry vehicles returning from low orbit. This is a first for Europe and those working in the field are keeping a close watch.
 

IXV external sensors (Credit: ESA)
 
The research and industrial community have the chance to use this information for progress in atmospheric reentry, oriented towards transportation systems with applications in exploration, science, Earth observation, microgravity and clean space.
Jose Longo, ESA's head of aerothermodynamics, said, "The technical advancements that have been made since the first experiments with our Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator in 1996 are huge."
"This is the first flight demonstration of features such as highly advanced thermal structures: thrusters and flaps that are part of the control system, and the 300 sensors and infrared camera to map the heating all along the spacecraft from the nose to the flaps. These things just cannot be tested in the same way in laboratories."
"The fact that ESA's IXV will be launched on Vega makes this a fully European mission," noted Stefano Bianchi, ESA's head of launchers development.
 
IXV weighs almost two tonnes, close to Vega's lifting capacity, and will be a tight fit inside the vehicle's fairing.
"In this mission we are not only monitoring the spacecraft all along its autonomous flight, but also tracking its progress back to Earth to a particular spot – this is different to what we are used to," said Giorgio Tumino, ESA's IXV project manager.
When IXV splashes down in the Pacific at the end of its mission it will be recovered by ship and returned to Europe for detailed analysis to assess the performance and condition of the internal and external structures.
The actual performance will be compared with predictions to improve computer modelling of the materials used and the spaceplane's design.
Such is the enthusiasm and interest of industry in the opportunities associated with reentry technologies that the third IXV workshop in ESA's Technical Centre, ESTEC, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands was packed out last week.
"It is very encouraging to see such interest in this programme," added Giorgio. "Follow-up activities to this mission will build on the current industrial organisation and associated technologies will provide opportunities to newcomers."

 - See more at: http://www.parabolicarc.com/2014/07/19/esa-prepares-launch-experimental-space-plane/#more-52902

[PIN]

Феноменально
http://pda.lenta.ru/news/2014/07/25/ixv/

[Salo]

[Salo]