ESA is planning on using the new international docking standard with the ATV.
Really?
Certainly not with any ISS missions. I suppose they have floated the idea of using ATV derived vehicles as mini-habs/stations on exploration missions (which would use the new docking standard if used with US hardware), but that is all powerpoint at this stage.
B. HTV can't dock, only berth. APAS requires docking velocity and forces. The SSRMS can't generate those.
You are suggesting that SSRMS cannot berth modules that have APAS? I don't think that is correct.
ESA is planning on using the new international docking standard with the ATV.
Really?
Certainly not with any ISS missions. I suppose they have floated the idea of using ATV derived vehicles as mini-habs/stations on exploration missions (which would use the new docking standard if used with US hardware), but that is all powerpoint at this stage.
No, I did read it that that was the plan... Around the time that the specs for the standard were released... And it was probably here where I read it, or spacenews.com. Don't remember and I don't feeling searching for it. Seeing how ESA changes its mind quarterly on just about everything lately, I would't be surprised if this too is no longer in the plan.
APAS requires docking velocity and forces. The SSRMS can't generate those.
Ahem... http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/S99_03776.jpg
(yeah, I know it is the shuttle arm, not the station arm - but it should be able to handle it just as well)
The arm was unlocked and the shuttle was accelerating the two components into another.
http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-88/sts-88-day-04-highlights.html
"After slowly and carefully aligning Zarya's docking mechanism with a comparable mechanism on Unity's Pressurized Mating Adapter-1, Commander Bob Cabana fired Endeavour's downward jets at 8:07 p.m. to drive the two large modules together. "
Given that the ISS RMS has berthed Rassvet, which uses a Russian docking system, I doubt that berthing APAS would be any more impossible.
APAS requires docking velocity and forces. The SSRMS can't generate those.
Ahem... http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/S99_03776.jpg
(yeah, I know it is the shuttle arm, not the station arm - but it should be able to handle it just as well)
The arm was unlocked and the shuttle was accelerating the two components into another.
http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-88/sts-88-day-04-highlights.html
"After slowly and carefully aligning Zarya's docking mechanism with a comparable mechanism on Unity's Pressurized Mating Adapter-1, Commander Bob Cabana fired Endeavour's downward jets at 8:07 p.m. to drive the two large modules together. "
Given that the ISS RMS has berthed Rassvet, which uses a Russian docking system, I doubt that berthing APAS would be any more impossible.
APAS requires a higher force to effect capture than the russian probe and drogue docking system. That was the engineering rational for developing LIDS in the first place (before someone says "its velocity not force that's the concern"; F=MA)
Did you think they did it that way on STS-88 for kicks?
