Japan's new space freighter won't make the jump to light speed like the Millennium
Falcon, but it could pave the way for future human spaceflight endeavors.
The H-2
Transfer Vehicle (HTV), as it's called, is scheduled to make its launch
debut Thursday atop an equally brand new H-2B rocket. The Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency (JAXA) hopes that a successful debut for both vehicles will
establish the technologies for more ambitious missions beyond Earth orbit.
"From the JAXA perspective this is a test flight," said
Masazumi Miyake, the deputy manager of JAXA's Houston office. "But we will
bring several payloads to support ISS [International Space Station] logistics
and crew."
A successful
launch from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center Thursday at 1:01 p.m. EDT
(1701 GMT) would allow HTV-1 to deliver 3.5 tons of needed supplies to the
space station. The cylindrical Japanese space freighter would then join Europe's
Automated Transfer Vehicles and the Russian Progress spacecraft in resupplying
ISS after the space shuttle fleet retires in 2010.
But first, everything from launch to docking must go smoothly with what
is still an untested spacecraft on an untried rocket. Astronauts will also have
to perform the first-ever free-flyer capture of a spacecraft from the space
station to pluck the HTV from space.
Up and away
Japan's
new H-2B rocket is a step up in size from the country's earlier H-2A
rocket, but can carry more than double the payload to orbit. That means JAXA
can move from launching satellites to full-fledged unmanned or possibly manned
spacecraft.
Miyake said that H-2B shares many of the same reliable components with
H-2A, and so JAXA has confidence in this rocket's maiden flight.
"The launch vehicle is on its first flight, but most components and
subsystems are the same as H-2A launch vehicle," Miyake told SPACE.com.
"The difference is that we have four [solid rocket] boosters rather than the
two on H-2A, and two main engine thrusters rather than the one on H-2A."
H-2A has just one failure compared to 14 successful launches on record,
and has previously lofted hardware such as Japan's moon orbiter Kaguya. The larger
H-2B rocket also requires about 1.7 times more propellant than its smaller
predecessor. It stands about 187 feet (57 meters).
The extra carrying capacity allows H-2B to lift almost eight tons to a
geostationary transfer orbit. The 16 1/2-ton HTV-1, meanwhile, is destined for
a lower orbit to reach the space station, which flies 220 miles (354 km) above
Earth.
Free-flyer
Just as Japan's new rocket relies upon prior systems, the $220-million
HTV-1 also draws upon existing technology from Japan's massive Kibo laboratory
on the space station.
Kibo is a giant facility the size of a tour bus that houses experiments
in a pressurized interior pod, an attic-like storage room and an external
science platform. It has its own robotic arm, two windows and a small airlock.
The HTV-1 is 33 feet (10 meters) long, 14 feet (4.4 meters) wide and
covered in solar panels to power its onboard systems. It can haul up to six
tons of cargo for use both inside the space station and outside, and will be
toting both types of supplies when it lifts off on Thursday.
"It's the first unmanned vehicle that brings with it both
pressurized and unpressurized cargo," NASA space station flight director
Dana Weigel said in a recent briefing. "It's also the first unmanned vehicle
going to the U.S. segment, and the first free-flyer capture from ISS."
A free-flyer capture means that space station astronauts must use a Canadian
robotic arm to grab the free-floating HTV-1.
The space freighter does not automatically dock like the European and
Russian spacecraft. Instead, a preprogrammed computer controls HTV-1's approach
up until the moment of robotic grapple. The robotic arm operator, NASA
astronaut Nicole Stott, must then seal the deal within a 99-second capture
clock.
"The rendezvous is mostly automatic as HTV is approaching
ISS," Miyake said. "At the last minute, the onboard crew has the
capability to abort HTV if something happens to the automatic system."
Miyake added that Japanese engineers previously tested such docking
technology with satellites.
Moving to manned spaceflight
No concrete plans exist yet for a Japanese manned space program, even if
Japanese astronauts have already flown to the space station and tested odor-free
underwear in microgravity. But HTV-1 could provide some of the core
technologies for Japanese astronauts to take their own rides into space.
"Currently HTV will be disposed of in the atmosphere," Miyake
said. "But if we could add some return capability to HTV, it could be one
of the technologies for manned spaceflight."
Such a development could parallel European proposals to refit their ATV
cargo ship for proper
reentry, rather than simply burning up in the atmosphere. Miyake noted that
upgrading the HTV design represents a real possibility for the future.
"We hope that this HTV technology will contribute to future moon
and Mars missions, and to international cooperation," Miyake said.
The Japanese space freighter may soon fulfill the international
collaboration part of those wishes, as long as the mission goes as planned.
Robert Lightfoot, deputy director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center,
enthusiastically described HTV's role in that sense during a public meeting in
July of a White House-appointed panel reviewing NASA's human spaceflight plans.
"I sat in the HTV review last week for the Japanese transfer
vehicle and that is one of the neatest reviews I have ever been in because you
had the Canadian Space Agency, you had JAXA, and you had the U.S. side talking
about how we are going to actually capture this free-flyer HTV and we are going
to use the Canadian arm and go grab it," Lightfoot said.
SPACE.com will provide complete coverage of Japan's HTV test
as well as NASA's ongoing Discovery shuttle mission to the International Space
Station. Click here for
SPACE.com's space station coverage and a link to NASA TV, which will broadcast
the launch Thursday beginning at 12:45 p.m. EDT.
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