MOBILITY ENGINEERING Produced by SAE Media Group
MOBILITY ENGINEERING
Magazines
Magazine cover

Current Issue

Archives

Magazine cover

Current Issue

Archives

Magazine cover

Current Issue

Archives

Magazine cover

Current Issue

Archives

First Orion European Space Module Delivered

The European Space Module arrived in Florida for the upcoming 2020 Orion Exploration Mission 1.

NASA’s Orion spacecraft will carry astronauts further into space than ever before using a European Space Module. (Image source: NASA)

The first European Space Module  (ESM) just arrived in Titusville, Florida in preparation for its installation on the next-generation Orion  multi-purpose crew vehicle and testing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center  . With Orion capsule testing and the ESM delivery milestone complete, NASA  is two years out from Orion Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1) – the program’s unmanned spacecraft validation mission around the Moon in 2020.

An artist’s impression of the ESM directly below the Orion capsule (Image source: ESA)
ESA’s ATV-4 – the basis for the Orion Program’s ESM, approached ISS in 2013. (Image source: NASA/ESA)
The ESM is loaded into a Volga-Dnepr Airlines Antonov An-124-100 commercial transport aircraft for transport to Florida. (Image source: Volga-Dnepr Airlines)

Developed and built by the European Space Agency  (ESA) and Ottobrunn, Germany-based Airbus Defence and Space  , the ESM will provide space propulsion and course correction once the Orion spacecraft separates from the Space Launch System  heavy-lift launch vehicle. The module will also supply the Orion spacecraft with power, water, and thermal control.

Read more: Final Orion capsule parachute system test successful

The cylindrical ESM resembles ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle  (ATV) developed by the European agency to deliver payload mass – or upmass – to the ISS. Including the main engine and propellant tanks, the ESM is four meters long with a 19-meter-wide solar array. The module has one main engine that delivers forward thrust and 32 smaller thrusters for omnidirectional course correction. In total, the ESM propulsion system uses approximately 9 tons of propellant.

The 14-ton ESM was transported from an ESA facility in Bremen, Germany in a special temperature- and pressure-controlled container aboard a Volga-Dnepr Airlines  Antonov  An-124-100 commercial transport aircraft. The transport aircraft also brought with it 10 tons of ESM support equipment.

“It is an honor for us to be supporting such a significant and historic endeavor. Providing specialist transportation for the aerospace industry is one of Volga-Dnepr Airlines’ key areas of expertise and every year we operate more than 50 flights carrying various space cargoes, including satellites, parts of spacecraft, rockets, and boosters,” says Volga-Dnepr Airlines Executive President for Cargo Charter Operations, Konstantin Vekshin.

For 30 years, the An-124 held the title of world's heaviest gross weight production cargo airplane until the development of the Boeing 747-8 Freighter  in 2005. The An-124 still remains the largest military transport aircraft in the world.

“The unique capabilities of our Antonov 124-100 and Ilyushin 76TD-90VD freighters, with their ramp loading capabilities and onboard crane systems, combined with our three decades of experience, enables our team of experts to provide safe, secure, time-saving, and cost-efficient solutions for deliveries of such important and sensitive cargoes. We wish this unique, history-changing space mission every success,” continues Vekshin.

These partnerships and exploration missions are exactly the foundation needed for space technology development.

For the last 40 years, humans have been travelling into low-Earth orbit. In 2022, two years after EM-1, Orion will take astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit, further into space than ever before to collect scientific data and develop enabling technologies – potentially for when the time comes to send humans to Mars of further.

Orion’s course for the EM-1 mission and for future manned missions exceed distances travelled by astronauts since Apollo 17 – the last lunar landing – in 1972. (Image source: Airbus Defence and Space)

William Kucinski  is content editor at SAE International, Aerospace Products Group in Warrendale, Pa. Previously, he worked as a writer at the NASA Safety Center in Cleveland, Ohio and was responsible for writing the agency’s System Failure Case Studies. His interests include literally anything that has to do with space, past and present military aircraft, and propulsion technology.

Contact him regarding any article or collaboration ideas by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Topics:
Aerospace Automotive Defense Electrification Expendable launch vehicles Launch vehicles Propulsion Spacecraft Spacecraft Vehicles

More From SAE Media Group

    Transcript

    00:00:02 [Music] a glimpse of the future of manned space flight at the airbus facilities in bremen germany the european service module or esm is europe's contribution to nasa's new orion spacecraft which will carry astronauts to the moon and beyond european companies have provided components for this first module which

    00:00:34 will soon take part in orion's first unmanned flight in february a contract was signed between esa and airbus to build nasa a second esm for orion's second space flight which is currently predicted to launch in 2021 this service module relationship this partnership we have has esa as a critical partner of nasa and its

    00:00:59 exploration program it's something quite new it's really important to us and it cements the role of europe as a real global player in space exploration the esm will sit below orion's crew module providing life support and control functions its engines will propel and maneuver the spacecraft and it will supply air water and electricity as well as regulating

    00:01:24 temperature the esm is derived from eza's highly successful atv cargo module which carried material to and from the international space station however adapting the technology for manned spaceflight has presented a whole host of new challenges there is heritage from atv only in a few hardware items but mostly the heritage

    00:01:49 is related that we know how to develop and to qualify vehicle but for example there is something like a solar life driving mechanism which has two axes of freedom we have never had that before this system we are now delivering does not have an onboard computer but it is steered from the crew module which is called the orion data network which is an ether based communication system

    00:02:09 which is something which did not operate on atv this collaboration between esa and nasa means that astronauts will soon go farther into space than ever before during its unmanned first flight orion will travel beyond the moon before returning to earth we'll go deeper than humans have gone before with em1

    00:02:31 it'll really be a good chance to prove out the fundamental technologies built off of the atv heritage for going deeper into space nasa and isa the importance of that relationship was built many years ago it's bringing great minds together from around the world we can't explore alone nasa cannot explore alone matias mauro from germany is one of

    00:02:54 visa's newly appointed astronauts one day he may have the chance to travel to space onboard orion 500 years ago we had the great explorers on the earth they had appropriate ships to sail the deep sea we astronauts we need to have appropriate spaceships to fly across a deep space and that's exactly what orion and esm will bring us the possibility to go

    00:03:18 for deep travel as part of nasa's orion the european service module will be integral in supporting a crew of four astronauts for up to 21 days a new chapter in space travel is about to begin thanks to a collaboration which pays testament to ease's long history of space flight expertise

    00:03:43 [Music] you

    Top Stories

    INSIDERManned Systems

    Feature Image Venus Aerospace’s Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine Completes First Flight...

    INSIDERSoftware

    Feature Image Bombardier is Digitally Upgrading its Aircraft Design, Engineering and...

    INSIDERMaterials

    Feature Image New Copper Alloy Could Provide Breakthrough in Durability for Military Systems

    NewsEnergy

    Feature Image ACT Expo 2025: Heavy-Duty EVs, H2 Trucks and Tariff Talk Dominate Day One

    INSIDERResearch Lab

    Feature Image Quarterhorse Hypersonic Test Aircraft Completes First Flight

    INSIDERCommunications

    Feature Image How the US Army is Advancing Research in Robotics, AI and Autonomy

    Webcasts