SCHOOLAB – A Free-Flyer Educational Laboratory Based on the ATV
- Paper number
IAC-07-E5.4.09
- Author
Mr. David Nixon, Astrocourier (Ireland) Ltd, United States
- Year
2007
- Abstract
Space research traditionally is the province of government, industry and academia with space experiments developed by an exclusive global community of scientists and technologists. Space can also play a vital role in another branch of society – the education field – where it can stimulate the interest of young people in science and technology. School experiments fly occasionally as small payloads on short missions but are low in priority on mission manifests. NASA offered space access to schools on the Shuttle with its successful GAS (Getaway Special) programme but ended it after the COLUMBIA loss. The International Space Station (ISS) is to be reorientated away from science towards exploration and it is unlikely it will host school experiments. The potential of space as a unique and valuable learning tool results in a need for space access for schools that at present remains wholly unfulfilled. This paper proposes a solution called SCHOOLAB, an international free-flyer laboratory dedicated to hosting experiments from schools worldwide. SCHOOLAB is based on the AUTOMATED TRANSFER VEHICLE (ATV), a servicing and logistics vehicle developed by the European Space Agency for ISS support. The ATV is due to make its first flight in 2007. It is a highly capable spacecraft with its own propulsion, power, guidance, rendezvous and docking capabilities and a cargo capacity of 7.5 metric tons inside an accessible pressurized module. It is launched by the ARIANE 5 rocket. The SCHOOLAB concept utilizes three modified ATVs, docked end-to-end on orbit. One is outfitted as a laboratory for internal and external experiments, one for habitation and one for logistics. SCHOOLAB is launched on three ARIANE 5 missions and assembled on orbit using the ATV’s rendezvous and docking capabilities. It is visited by two-person crews on short-stays, using the Russian SOYUZ TMA vehicle which docks at either end and remains there while the crew is on-board. Visiting crews operate, tend and exchange experiments, returning them to the ground on a rota basis, initially via SOYUZ and later by a newer generation of spacecraft. The logistics module is undocked and deorbited from time to time as supplies and consumables are exhausted and replaced with a new one delivered by the ARIANE 5, enabling SCHOOLAB to have an extended life-cycle on orbit. SCHOOLAB would be an international laboratory available for use by schools around the world.
- Abstract document