ARLA/CLUSTER: Camera de ATV vai transmitir o interior de uma desintegração na reentrada da atmosfera

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

Camera to record doomed ATV's disintegration - from inside

On Monday, February 9, ESA astronaut Samantha Christoforetti, IZ0UDF,
will float into Europe's space ferry to install a special infrared
camera, set to capture unique interior views of the spacecraft's
break-up on re-entry.

The battery-powered camera will be trained on the Automated Transfer
Vehicles forward hatch, and will record the shifting temperatures of the
scene before it, explains Neil Murray, overseeing the project for ESA.

Recording at 10 frames per second, it should show us the last 10
seconds or so of the ATV. We dont know exactly what we might see -
might there be gradual deformations appearing as the spacecraft comes
under strain, or will everything come apart extremely quickly?

Our Break-Up Camera, or BUC, flying for the first time on this mission,
will complement NASAs Reentry Break-up Recorder.

Whatever results we get back will be shared by our teams, and should
tell us a lot about the eventual reentry of the International Space
Station as well as spacecraft reentry in general.

Every mission of ESAs ATV ferry ends in the same way filled with Space
Station rubbish then burning up in the atmosphere, aiming at a
designated spacecraft graveyard in an empty stretch of the South
Pacific.

But the reentry of this fifth and final ATV is something special. NASA and
ESA are treating it as an opportunity to gather detailed information that
will help future spacecraft reentries.

Accordingly, ATV-5 will be steered into a shallow descent compared to
the standard deorbit path.

This ATVs fiery demise will be tracked with a battery of cameras and
imagers, on the ground, in the air and even from the Station itself, and
this time on the vehicle itself.

ESAs camera will not survive the reentry, expected to occur some 80-70
km up, but it is linked to the SatCom sphere with a ceramic thermal
protection system to endure the searing 1500C.

Once SatCom is falling free, it will transmit its stored data to any Iridium
communication satellites in view.

Plunging through the top of the atmosphere at around 7 km/s, it will
itself be surrounded by scorching plasma known to block radio signals,
but the hope is that its omnidirectional antenna will be able to
exploit a gap in its trail.

If not, signalling will continue after the plasma has cleared somewhere
below 40 km altitude.

Japans i-Ball camera managed to gather images of its Station supply
ferry breaking up in 2012. Another i-Ball was planned to fly with
ATV-5, but was lost in the Antares rocket explosion last October.

The full story with photos can be found on the ESA web:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering_Technology/
Camera_to_record_doomed_ATV_s_disintegration_from_inside