Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle
 Artist's view of IXV reentry phase. | |
| Operator | ESA |
|---|---|
| Major contractors | NGL Prime/Thales Alenia Space |
| Mission type | Reentry technology demonstration |
| Launch date | 2014 [1] |
| Launch vehicle | VEGA |
| Launch site | Kourou ELV |
| Landing site | Pacific Ocean |
| Homepage | ESA Reentry technologies |
| Mass | 1,800 kilograms (4,000 lb) |
| Orbital elements | |
| Regime | Suborbital |
| Altitude | 450 kilometres (280 mi) |
| References: [2][3][4] | |
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.[5] The IXV development would be carried out under the leadership of the NGL Prime SpA company.[4] It would inherit of the principles of previous studies such as CNES' Pre-X and ESA's AREV (Atmospheric Reentry Experimental Vehicle).
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. The avionics are controlled by a LEON2-FT microprocessor, and interconnected by a MIL-STD-1553B serial bus.[6]
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][7] Initially scheduled to make its first orbiting flight in 2013,[8] the current plans are to launch the IXV during 2014[1] by a Vega rocket, the ESA’s new small launcher, descending to the Pacific Ocean for later recovery and analysis of the recorded mission data.[9] The total estimated cost for the project is 150 million euros.[2]
Specifications
Data from ESA,[2] Space.com,[3] Gunter's Space Page[4]
General characteristics
- Crew: None
- Capacity: None
- Length: 5 m (16.4 ft)
- Wingspan: 2.2 m (7.2 ft)
- Height: 1.5 m (4.9 ft)
- Empty weight: 480 kg (1,058 kg)
- Loaded weight: 1,900 kg with propulsion module (4,188 lb)
- Power: Batteries
Performance
- Maximum speed: 7700 m/s (27,720 km/h) 17,224 mph
- Range: 7,500 km (4,660 mi)
- Max altitude: 450 km (280 mi) suborbital flight
Pre-launch testing
On June 21, 2013 the IXV was dropped from an altitude of 3 km over Poligono Interforze Salto di Quirra, which is off the east coast of Sardinia. The test validated the water landing system including: subsonic parachute, floatation balloons and beacon deployment. A small anomaly was encountered when inflating the balloons, the rest of the systems performed as expected. After the test the vehicle was taken for further analysis.[10] The IXV had undergone previous testing of the supersonic parachute at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona in the late stages of 2012[11] as well as water impact tests at CNR–INSEAN near Rome.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Vega to fly ESA experimental reentry vehicle". ESA. 2011-12-16. Retrieved 2011-12-16. "Following development of critical technologies and completion of the design, the vehicle’s manufacturing, assembly, integration and qualification is now under way for a flight window between January and September 2014."
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "IXV e-book" (PDF within a ZIP). European Space Agency. 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Peter B. de Selding (2009-12-18). "ESA Spending Freeze Ends with Deals for Sentinel Satellites, Ariane 5 Upgrade". Space News. Retrieved 2011-11-04. "The contract is valued at 39.4 million euros to cover preliminary IXV work for 18 months, Fabrizi said."
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Gunter Dirk Krebs. "IXV". Retrieved 2011-11-04.
- ↑ "New milestone in IXV development". ESA. 2010-09-15. Retrieved 2011-11-04. "The Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV), under ESA’s Future Launchers Preparatory Programme (FLPP), is the step forward from the successful Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator flight in 1998, establishing Europe’s role in this field."
- ↑ Enrique Rodríguez, Pablo Giménez, Ignacio de Miguel, Vicente Fernández (2012-09-25). "SCOE for IXV GNC". Simulation & EGSE Facilities for Space Programmes (SESP 2012). European Space Agency.
- ↑ "ESA and Thales Alenia Space establish agreement for development of Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV)". ESA. 2009-06-19. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
- ↑ Rob Coppinger (2011-06-13). "Europe Aims to Launch Robotic Mini-Shuttle By 2020". Space.com. Retrieved 2011-06-16. "In 2013, a Vega rocket will carry ESA’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle into space."
- ↑ "ESA’s IXV reentry vehicle prepares for soft landing". ESA. 2012-11-09. Retrieved 2012-11-16. "it will fly the experimental hypersonic phase over the Pacific Ocean, descend by parachute and land in the ocean to await recovery and analysis."
- ↑ "Safe splashdown for IXV". ESA. 21 June 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
- ↑ "ESA's IXV Reentry Vehicle Prepares for Soft Landing". ESA. 9 Nov 2012. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
Further reading
- Giorgio Tumino, Yves Gerard (November 2006). "IXV: the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle". ESA bulletin (128): 62–67.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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. Bibcode:2011ShWav..21..253G. doi:10.1007/s00193-011-0326-y.
External links
- 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)
- ESA’s IXV reentry vehicle mission, ESA Online videos (2012-11-08)
- ESA Euronews: "Splashdown — the re-entry test" (2013-08-22). Video on YouTube
- CNES reusable atmospheric re-entry vehicle: PRE-X
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