Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle

The Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) is a European Space Agency (ESA) experimental re-entry vehicle intended to validate European reusable launchers which could be evaluated in the frame of the FLPP program.^[1] The IXV development would be carried out under the leadership of the NGL Prime SpA company.^[2] It would inherit of the principles of previous studies such as CNES' Pre-X and ESA's AREV.

Design

IXV uses a lifting body arrangement with no wings of any sort, using two movable flaps for re-entry flight control. Re-entry is accomplished in a nose-high attitude like the Space Shuttle, with maneuvering accomplished by rolling out-of-plane and then lifting in that direction, like an aircraft. Landing is accomplished by parachutes ejected through the top of the vehicle. The airframe is based on a traditional hot-structure/cold-structure arrangement, and is supported on-orbit by a separate maneuvering and support module similar to the Resource Module intended for the Hermes.

On December 18, 2009, ESA announced a contract with Thales Alenia Space valued at 39.4 million euros to cover 18 months of preliminary IXV work.^[3][4] Initially scheduled to make its first orbiting flight in 2013,^[5] the current plans are to launch the IXV during 2014^[6] by a Vega rocket, the ESA’s new small launcher. The total estimated cost for the project is 150 million euros.^[7]

Specifications

Data from ESA,^[7] Space.com,^[4] Gunter's Space Page^[2]

General characteristics

• Crew: None
• Capacity: None
• Length: 4.4 m (14.4 ft)
• Wingspan: 2.2 m (7.2 ft)
• Height: 1.5 m (4.9 ft)
• Loaded weight: 1,800 kg (3,970 lb)
• Power: Batteries

Performance

• Orbit: Suborbital (height of 450 km)

See also

• Hermes
• Hopper
• Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator
• Boeing X-37
• Italian Aerospace Research Centre

References

Further reading

• Giorgio Tumino, Yves Gerard (November 2006). "IXV: the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle". ESA bulletin (128): 62–67. http://www.esa.int/esapub/bulletin/bulletin128/bul128h_tumino.pdf. 
• Giorgio Tumino, Enrico Angelino, Frederic Leleu, Roberto Angelini, Patrice Plotard, Josef Sommer (2008-10-15). "The IXV project: the ESA re-entry system and technolologies demonstrator paving the way to European autonomous space transportation and exploration endeavours". 3rd FLPP Industrial Workshop. European Space Agency. IAC-08-D2.6.01. http://www.congrex.nl/08m35/papers/IAC-08.D2.6.1.pdf. 
• Paolo Baiocca (June 2007). "Pre-X experimental re-entry lifting body: Design of flight test experiments for critical aerothermal phenomena". RTO-EN-AVT-130 — Flight Experiments for Hypersonic Vehicle Development (von Karman Institute, 24-27 October 2005). NATO Research and Technology Organisation. pp. 11-1 – 11-18. ISBN 978-92-837-0079-1. http://ftp.rta.nato.int/public//PubFullText/RTO/EN/RTO-EN-AVT-130///EN-AVT-130-11.pdf. 
• Paolo Baiocca, Sylvain Guedron, Patrice Plotard, Jacques Moulin (October 2006). "The Pre-X atmospheric re-entry experimental lifting body: Program status and system synthesis". Proceedings of the 57th IAF Congress. International Astronautical Congress (IAF). pp. 459–474. doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2007.01.053. 
• T. Gawehn, D. Neeb, F. Tarfeld, A. Gülhan, M. Dormieux, P. Binetti, T. Walloschek (2011). "Experimental investigation of the influence of the flow structure on the aerodynamic coefficients of the IXV vehicle". Shock Waves 21 (3): 253–266. doi:10.1007/s00193-011-0326-y. 

External links

• ESA IXV page
• ESA re-entry technologies page
• IXV: learning to come back from Space, ESA Television (2008-10-23), IXV Video News Release VNR
• ESA’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle, ESA Multimedia Gallery (2008 animation)
• CNES reusable atmospheric re-entry vehicle: PRE-X