The European Space Agency (ESA) and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have signed an agreement. According to this agreement the service module of the currently under-construction Orion manned spacecraft, designed for beyond-low-earth-orbit flights, will be built on the basis of the European ATV unmanned resupply spacecraft.
Orion’s first flight is scheduled for 2017, when the spacecraft is to reach the Moon in an unmanned mode. The second flight, as it is planned today (this time manned), is to take place in 2021, and the new agreement between the agencies may mean that a European citizen will be included in the crew. The signed agreement is further evidence that future space exploration will most likely be a matter of international cooperation. European unmanned resupply spacecraft ATV (abbreviation for the Automated Transfer Vehicle) has been used for the maintenance of the International Space Station since 2008. During this time, three ATV visited the station (the last one – “Edoardo Amaldi” - left the ISS at the end of last September), and the fourth spacecraft called “Albert Einstein” is getting ready for the flight. After the flight of the fifth ATV in 2014, the program is planned to end. On the other hand, Orion is being developed by NASA together with the new SLS carrier rocket. This combination must ensure that the US actively returns to manned cosmonautics after the era of “Shuttles”. However, the further program of human presence in space is not clear: although the Moon most often appears to be the main destination. The first expedition in 2017 (Exploration Mission 1, or EM-1) is more or less determined – the Orion spaceship in an unmanned mode will be launched into space on December 17, 2017 with the help of the new carrier rocket and will head to the Moon. The second Orion may set off to the Moon in 2021 with a crew of four (or fewer) people on board. It is expected that the crew will spend three-four days in the near-Moon orbit before heading home. According to the new agreement, engines, tanks, a temperature control system, as well as a supply of water and oxygen will be placed in the Orion service module. In addition, X-shape solar panels, characteristic of the ATV, will be placed there. This European joining in the US manned program may mean that in the process of the work, negotiations on the inclusion of a European representative in the future crew of the first manned mission will begin. Presently, the work of the ISS is planned only up to 2020. This solution guarantees a kind of a “smooth transition” from one type of manned expeditions to another. That is, of course, if everything goes well. However, technical problems may not be decisive in the Orion program. Its main drawback is the absence of a clear goal of these missions. Presumably, all that is done in the manned space should bring a man to Mars. But there is no clear plan of reaching the red planet yet. Another idea is to use Orion for a manned flight to an asteroid. It is an ambitious and interesting task, but it does not enjoy unanimous approval. Thus, Europe's involvement in the project can be considered as a sort of a “guarantee” that the program will be continued. However, experts are also waiting for NASA to provide some documents, which will detail the ultimate goals of the manned program in the coming decades. The same is more or less true regarding Russia. The recently declared program of Russia’s space activities up to 2020 considers manned cosmonautics the third priority (after the development of a space-based services sector and space science), because until that time, it will exist mainly on the base of the ISS. However, there is also a mention in the text that in the next seven years Russia is going to create a scientific-technical basis for future manned flights into space. Probably, at the first hand, it means a flight to the Moon, however, there is no specific information in the program, and on the whole, it looks more like a plan of solving the most urgent problems of the domestic space sector. In any case, flights to other planets still remain, if not pure art for art's sake, but a sufficiently long-term investment. Source: Voice of Russia
