International Space Station to Receive Solar-Powered Cargo
Whatever posturing or politicking might go on here at ground level, the International Space Station stands as a beacon of community between the world’s spacefaring nations. That community, or at least the Netherlands’ role in it, has grown a bit with the recent signing of a deal that will see Dutch Space B.V. provide solar arrays for nine unmanned cargo ferries. The ferries will deliver supplies to the space station.
The deal is a feat of international collaboration here on earth as well. The shell of the cargo ships will be built by Thales Alenia Space of Italy. The solar arrays will be integrated, tested and constructed by Dutch Space. The cargo ferries themselves will be built by Orbital Sciences of Virginia, USA. Furthermore, Dutch Space will look to two other American companies, Alliant Techsystems and Emcore, to develop substrates and solar cells for the solar panels.
The ships are part of Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus line and will deliver a number of supplies to space station residents through 2016. A demonstration flight is scheduled in 2001 as part of a NASA program. As far as Dutch Space is concerned, they are not new at this. The company provided solar panels for European Space Administration’s (ESA) Automated Transfer Vehicle, which has already flown to space once.
The vehicle will be launched on the back of a rocket in Virginia and will be powered by Dutch Space’s solar panels. Although, if the Cygnus is like its European counterpart that has already been to the station, it will be disposable, and once everything of use is removed at the space station, discarded as space litter.
Source: Space News
Photo Credit: NASA
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Posted on November 19th in Solar News by Dan.
November 23rd, 2009 at 6:51 am
If only politicking and bickering were out of the way, then I guess what should’ve been done might’ve been done a long time ago. Although there are interests that may come into conflict with each other, I say nothing should come before the preservation and betterment of the earth’s ’s health.