The European Space Agency ’s next - gen re - ingress fomite is take shape . Called IXV , it could pave the way to Europe ’s first independent cosmonaut mission . This scaled - down prototype , which is schedule for its first automated launch and re - entry later this year , is on purpose modeled after the nose of NASA ’s Space Shuttle .
Image : ESA via New Scientist .
The ESA has been working on IXV , orIntermediate eXperimental Vehicle , for the past five years . It utilize a lifting consistency arrangement with no wings and two movable flaps for re - entry flight control . Once it ’s ready to amount back to Earth , it will point to a nozzle - gamey height like the Space Shuttle . It will land via the benefit of chute onto a water supply soundbox ( namely the Pacific Ocean ) .
Here ’s how the whole affair will go down once it ’s in full developed and ready to go :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NSFZAKd-nk
The first launching of the robotic test probe will happen in October from Kourou in French Guiana . It will strain an altitude of 412 km ( the same height as the ISS ) and make one planetary revolution before re - entry .
Recently , New Scientist ’s Jacob Aron was invited to visit the facility in Italy where the IXV is being develop . He writes :
peer deep down , I estimate there ’s just enough space for a curled - up stowaway , but I would n’t commend it .
Instead of being a people mailman , this craft is design to test two technologies vital to future mission : a heat shield and two rearward flaps that move up and down to provide maneuverability . When it launches in October from Kourou in French Guiana it will reach an altitude of 412 kilometres – about the same as the ISS – and fly almost solely snipe the planet before re - entrance . The craft is robotic and will adjust its flight on the way to splashdown to within a 20 - kilometre - diameter circle in the Pacific Ocean , where a ship will be waiting to recover it .
If that test is successful , ESA hopes to build a new blank space craft that work the IXV technology . With bureaucratic wrangles ahead , it is not clear what form that craft will take , but a distance carpenter’s plane that is base on the IXV but lands on the terra firma like an aeroplane , not in water , would fit the bill , and could be build within three years , says Tumino . It would not be crew to start off with , but it would be capable to refuel and could be used to maintain satellites and sway out microgravity experiment at much lower monetary value than on the ISS .
Read the entire articlehere .
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