{"id":2487,"date":"2015-02-04T07:41:35","date_gmt":"2015-02-04T07:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=2487"},"modified":"2015-02-04T07:41:35","modified_gmt":"2015-02-04T07:41:35","slug":"ixv-100-minutes-of-critical-teamwork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/ixv-100-minutes-of-critical-teamwork\/","title":{"rendered":"IXV: 100 minutes of critical teamwork"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Mission<\/a>
Mission control<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During its brief but crucial mission, experts on three continents and the high seas will work in close cooperation for ESA\u2019s IXV spaceplane mission, monitoring its free flight in space, spectacular reentry and safe splashdown in the Pacific.<\/span><\/p>\n

On 11 February, ESA\u2019s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) will be released into a suborbital path by a Vega rocket launched from Kourou in French Guiana.<\/span><\/p>\n

The wingless spaceplane will soar to about 420 km , then return as though from a low-orbit mission, making a safe splashdown in the Pacific.<\/span><\/p>\n

During its 100-minute hypersonic and supersonic flight, it will test crucial new European reentry technologies.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\"Mission_profile_medium<\/a>After IXV separates from Vega, around 18 minutes after launch, experts not only in French Guiana but also in Europe, Africa and on a recovery ship in the Pacific will be responsible for the mission, working together to monitor the craft throughout its data-gathering flight.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAn extraordinary team of engineers from ESA\u2019s space operations centre, ESOC, in Darmstadt, Germany, will work at the IXV Mission Control Centre, MCC, in Italy, the tracking stations in Africa and on board the recovery ship,\u201d says project manager Giorgio Tumino, who will also sit \u2018on console\u2019 as Mission Director during the flight.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTheir expertise and contributions are indispensable for ensuring reliable operation of our ground systems.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Who does what<\/span><\/h3>\n

As for any ESA mission, the \u2018ground segment\u2019 comprises the mission control systems, data networks and tracking stations that support a spacecraft in flight.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The focus of activity on flight day will be the MCC, housed at the Advanced Logistics Technology Engineering Centre, in Turin, Italy, which will coordinate the entire ground segment, including the 10 m-diameter dishes in Libreville (Gabon) and Malindi (Kenya), and the tracking antenna on the recovery ship, Nos Aries.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

After separating from its carrier at an altitude of about 340 km, IXV will begin sending signals to be picked up first by the Libreville station around 18 minutes into flight.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis first slice of telemetry will give an update on IXV status and enable us to make refined calculations of the remaining trajectory and splashdown coordinates,\u201d says Gerhard Billig, IXV operations director and responsible for the overall functioning of the ground segment.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The vehicle is fully autonomous, and during its flight will carry out a programmed set of manoeuvres using its dual flaps and four 400 N thrusters, while recording data from multiple pressure, temperature and acceleration sensors as well as an infrared camera.<\/span><\/p>\n

The flaps also automatically stabilise and manoeuvre the craft during the scorching reentry.<\/span><\/p>\n

The next critical step occurs just after 23 minutes, when the Malindi station picks up signals as Libreville loses contact owing to Earth\u2019s curvature. This radio pass lasts about 11 minutes, and then Malindi, too, will lose radio contact.<\/span><\/p>\n

The craft will reach its peak altitude of about 420 km \u2013 higher than the International Space Station \u2013 around 32 minutes after liftoff, and then begin arcing downwards in a ballistic free fall towards Earth.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Body slamming our planet at 27 000 km\/h<\/span><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"IXV\"<\/a>
IXV<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Following the ballistic phase, reentry \u2013 IXV\u2019s most critical phase \u2013 will start at 120 km altitude, when the craft\u2019s aerodynamic \u2018lifting body\u2019 shape slices into the atmosphere at 27 000 km\/h, which mimics a spacecraft returning from a typical low-orbit mission.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThis is when the entire ground team will be most anxious, as we\u2019ll hear nothing from IXV once the Malindi pass ends until after it emerges from reentry, since signals are blocked by the hot plasma surrounding the vehicle as it plunges through the ionised atmosphere,\u201d says Giorgio.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reentry starts about 64 minutes into flight and lasts about 20 minutes. During reentry, the thermal protection on the underbody will be exposed to temperatures of around 1700\u00baC \u2013 hot enough to melt nickel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in the Pacific Ocean, slightly north of the equator and about 25 km from the\u00a0target splashdown spot near 3\u00b0N \/ 123\u00b0W<\/span><\/a>, the antenna on the recovery ship will be pointing at IXV\u2019s expected trajectory and listening for \u2018AOS\u2019 \u2013 acquisition of signal. Hearing it will indicate that reentry has gone well.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Descent to Pacific splashdown<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"Prototype_hoisted_aboard_medium\"<\/a>AOS is expected as soon as blackout ends, around 82 minutes after launch, and the ship station will immediately receive and record the craft\u2019s stored data, and begin monitoring the remaining critical flight activities, including ejection of the panel covering the parachute assembly, ejection and inflation of the multi-stage parachute, and splashdown.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just before splashdown, four balloons will inflate to keep IXV afloat.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Teamwork via realtime links<\/span><\/h3>\n

Throughout the flight, the Nos Aries, MCC in Turin and the Launch Control Room in Kourou will stay in contact with each other and with IXV via the ground stations using voice and data through cable links and Inmarsat satellites.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cThis enables the IXV mission director and all ground team members to maintain voice and data contact, see the telemetry transmitted from IXV and work together as a single team,\u201d says Gerhard.<\/span><\/p>\n

Developing, building up and testing the ground systems, and testing the links between the various locations, have taken more than two years of intense effort, all focused on just a single day.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it\u2019s only a 100-minute mission, we have benefited from the demanding standards of engineering and system design that we apply to larger, longer ESA missions, \u201d says Giorgio.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to a successful flight, receipt of precious data and extending Europe\u2019s capability for space exploration.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During its brief but crucial mission, experts on three continents and the high seas will work in close cooperation for ESA\u2019s IXV spaceplane mission, monitoring its free flight in space, spectacular reentry and safe splashdown in the Pacific. On 11 February, ESA\u2019s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) will be released into a suborbital path by a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Mission_control_medium.jpg",305,171,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Mission_control_medium-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Mission_control_medium-300x168.jpg",300,168,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Mission_control_medium.jpg",305,171,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Mission_control_medium.jpg",305,171,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Mission_control_medium.jpg",305,171,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Mission_control_medium.jpg",305,171,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Mission_control_medium.jpg",305,171,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Mission_control_medium.jpg",305,171,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Mission_control_medium.jpg",305,171,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Mission_control_medium.jpg",305,171,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Mission_control_medium.jpg",305,171,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Mission_control_medium.jpg",305,171,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Mission_control_medium.jpg",95,53,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Mission_control_medium.jpg",305,171,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Mission_control_medium.jpg",96,54,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Mission_control_medium.jpg",150,84,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics<\/a>","tag_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}