[X] My Assistant

[GravityWaves]

Jules Verne ATV Launch Approaching
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/...80211120639.htm

[nprev]

Nice interview, Rui!

Hmm...I dunno...Mr. Elwood sure used the word "manned" a lot, and pointed out that JV was designed to two-fault tolerance specs...definitely getting a vibe, here...

[ustrax]

Nice interview, Rui!

Hmm...I dunno...Mr. Elwood sure used the word "manned" a lot, and pointed out that JV was designed to two-fault tolerance specs...definitely getting a vibe, here...

Not an interview Nicholas, Ellwood made all the work...
Aren't you reading what you want to read?
But I too trust vibes...this will be faster than we think...

[nprev]

Not an interview Nicholas, Ellwood made all the work...
Aren't you reading what you want to read?

Nice work nonetheless, and, yeah... ...in addition to vibes, I also believe in buzz!

[ustrax]

Nice work nonetheless, and, yeah... ...in addition to vibes, I also believe in buzz!

You want buzz?...
Let me give you the closing words of Alain Thirkettle, ESA ISS Programme Manager, in his testimony to spacEurope, to be published Monday...:
"...the necessary capabilities for elements of future human exploration transportation and living/working accommodation are available to Europe, and thus both ATV and Columbus are a crucial building blocks for the future plans of the Agency."

What are these future plans Nicholas?...

(did you get my e-mail?...)

EDITED: Launch has been delayed 24 hours due to potential problem identified with the fitting of the grounding straps located in the separation system.

[ustrax]

I find it the F word unbelievable that there is no debate, here, at TPS, around something as important as the Jules Verne ATV launch...Doug...you payed for it...for a vehicle that will make its way towards the Moon and Mars...ODD, just ODD...
Don't doubt it...this is just the beggining...the beggining of wha we are all waiting for...is it for the fact that it is an European effort?
Tomorrow, at 4AM a new ground will be conquered...
A whole new range of opportunities will be set...
ODD man...just ODD...

[djellison]

Doug...you payed for it.

Actually - the UK isn't involved in ESA's ISS program, so I didn't. There's nothing exceptional in Alan's words - it's no secret that ESA would like a manned program of its own. ATV could have feed-forward technologies for that. But can we actually afford a manned program right now? No. Is there one formally proposed? No. Is Manned spaceflight where I think ESA should be going? Without a radical increase in funding - no.


What happened to ESA's involvement in Klipper? Nothing What happened to Hermes? Nothing. Has any follow on program using ATV development been formerly announced? No. Consider me unimpressed by a set of technologies that might, if the political will is there (which it isn't), become a building block of a vehicle that may or may not ever get made by a space agency that can't really afford it.

I don't see much to get excited about over and above what the ATV is actually going to do which is - whilst not a unique ability, is a new ability to ESA. It's a fat Progress launch. That's all.

The ATV isn't going to the Moon or Mars. It's going to the ISS. Maybe - in the future, 15, 20 years from now, a vehicle that shares some technology with ATV might, just maybe, take astronauts into space in a European vehicle. But is that something to be excited about now? Any ESA vision regarding the Moon or Mars will have to be closely tied to the VSE, and with the VSE almost certain to undergo a considerable ammount of remodelling post-November, it's enormously premature to assume ESA's going to Mars or the Moon. Will it happen, eventually - hopefully. Should we be excited about it now? No - because there isn't a single Euro comitted to such a program. The first ATV doesn't mark any sort of milestone on the way to a European Mars mission.

No Euros, no Eureka.

Doug