This article was taken from the October 2011 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Oxygen is a limited resource in space -- so how does the International Space Station (ISS) get topped up? Using a robotic cargo-freighter. Every 17 months, the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is launched from French Guiana. It carries more than five tonnes of monomethylhydrazine (MMH) fuel to restock the station and 100kg of gases, including oxygen for the astronauts, along with food, tools, clothes and new DVDs. "It's like a delivery truck," says Charlotte Beskow, ATV deputy mission manager at the European Space Agency. "Similarly to how a tugboat can help ships to manoeuvre in harbour, the ATV helps the ISS to get to higher orbit via reboosts."
The 20-tonne ATV takes eight days to sail under its own guidance to the ISS. It docks with the station to a precision of 8cm. But its journey begins long before launch. Wired goes behind the scenes.
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
